This month, NCCOR released its 2020 Annual Report, “New Paths to Equity.” Throughout the past year, NCCOR continued to examine issues of equity and explore the role of social determinants of health in reducing childhood obesity. Interventions on the social determinants of health became especially critical during the global pandemic, as the novel coronavirus disproportionately impacted communities and populations that have historically faced a host of social and health inequities.
In 2020, NCCOR:
- Developed a new resource, Measures for Children at High Risk for Obesity. The new resource includes a decision tree that walks researchers and practitioners through a series of questions regarding whether to develop, adapt, or apply an instrument for obesity measures in high-risk populations. The decision tree also provides five real-world case scenarios that describe the rationale for choosing one of the three measurement approaches. A Connect & Explore webinar about this resource was held on January 26, 2021 and hosted nearly 200 attendees.
- Published “Identification of Effective Programs to Improve Access to and Use of Trails among Youth from Under-Resourced Communities: A Review” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The primary aim of this review was to identify programs and policies that effectively promote and increase the use of trails among youth from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, especially those from under-resourced neighborhoods or communities.
- Published three whitepapers from the Advancing Measurement for Childhood Obesity Research workshop series. This series of three workshops aimed to define next steps in measurement needs to accelerate progress in reducing childhood obesity. The workshops were funded as part of NCCOR’s Strategic Alliance with The JPB Foundation. By addressing the many levels of factors that influence childhood obesity and with focused work within high-risk groups, NCCOR hopes these efforts will ultimately help reduce health inequities associated with childhood obesity.
- Released a new tool for those working on assessing childhood obesity. A Guide to Methods for Assessing Childhood Obesity helps users understand the most common adiposity assessment methods and select the most appropriate method for their particular objective. The Guide describes six methods commonly used to assess body composition in children and highlights procedures, validity and reliability, reference data, accessibility, cost, and participant burden and risk.
- Published four papers in Childhood Obesity highlighting findings from the Childhood Obesity Evidence Base (COEB) Project, a collaborative effort between NCCOR and Mission Measurement to use a novel taxonomic method of data aggregation on obesity prevention efforts for children ages 2–5 years.
- Translated the Youth Compendium of Physical Activities into Spanish and Mandarin. The Spanish version includes translations common in Spain, Mexico, and Columbia. Following the Spanish translation, NCCOR experts identified a need for a Mandarin version, having observed the value for this tool in China, since there are mandatory fitness exams in Chinese schools.
Read the full Annual Report to learn more about NCCOR’s accomplishments 2020, and help us spread the word about our latest resources and accomplishments using this accompanying social media toolkit.