In 2016 NCCOR expanded its outreach efforts, connecting with new audiences across the country to accelerate progress in reducing childhood obesity. NCCOR’s expanded outreach included more Connect & Explore webinars, an enhanced social media presence, exhibits at conferences, special-topic workshops, and a refreshed website. We worked with non-health partners on behavioral design issues, engaged healthcare providers and systems that work in childhood obesity prevention, and learned from retailers that collaborate with researchers to promote healthy options. The refresh of the NCCOR website at the end of the year allowed NCCOR to more effectively communicate research, products, and webinars. Through member meetings, workshops, conferences, Connect & Explore webinars, social media, and workgroup activities, NCCOR collaborated with 150 leading experts and reached thousands of researchers and practitioners.
Connect & Explore Webinars. 2016 was a monumental year for NCCOR’s Connect & Explore webinar series. In addition to the three live streamed sessions at SBM, NCCOR hosted a record number of eight Connect & Explore Webinars. This year Connect & Explore highlighted topics ranging from Health Care Community Collaborations, the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, Assessing the Prevalence and Trends in Obesity, Declines in Childhood Obesity, and School Wellness Policies. Through these topics NCCOR expanded its audience to hospitals, insurers and payers, health care providers, SNAP-Ed implementing agencies, and school wellness coordinators. Overall, more than 3,500 people registered for this year’s webinars.
Workshops. In 2016 NCCOR hosted two workshops in the fields of behavioral design and healthy retail. The behavioral design workshop brought together a multidisciplinary range of experts to work toward applying behavioral design principles to healthier living, specifically as they pertain to healthy eating and active living. NCCOR members are working on refining a white paper on these principles to be released early next year. In addition, the Moving from Test Market to All Markets: Translating Food Purchasing Research into Evidence-based Strategies to Improve the Purchase of Healthier Items workshop brought together researchers, practitioners, and retailers working via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education Program (SNAP-Ed) and other public and private programs that promote healthy food purchasing by low-income consumers. This workshop allowed this group of experts to learn how they can work together to promote healthy food in the retail setting.
Conferences. NCCOR attended the Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) 37th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC and the American Public Health Association’s 144th Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. NCCOR livestreamed three SBM panel sessions via the Connect & Explore webinar series. The panels offered exclusive access to presentations from internationally renowned scholars, exploring high-impact childhood obesity strategies from around the world, including scalable physical activity interventions in Latin America; sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in Mexico, South America, and the United States; and approaches to eliminating health disparities among U.S. and international populations disproportionately affected by obesity.
Looking Forward. In 2017 NCCOR will continue to support researchers and practitioners with tools that help build the capacity for research and surveillance to accelerate progress to reduce childhood obesity. Stay tuned for the release of the four domain-specific Measures Registry User Guides and the Youth Compendium of Physical Activity in early 2017.