Obesity poses one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century, creating serious health, economic, and social consequences for individuals and society. Despite acceleration in efforts to characterize, comprehend, and act on this problem, including implementation of preventive interventions, further understanding is needed on the progress and effectiveness of these interventions.

Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts develops a concise and actionable plan for measuring the nation's progress in obesity prevention efforts--specifically, the success of policy and environmental strategies recommended in the 2012 IOM report Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. This book offers a framework that will provide guidance for systematic and routine planning, implementation, and evaluation of the advancement of obesity prevention efforts. This framework is for specific use with the goals and strategies from the 2012 report and can be used to assess the progress made in every community and throughout the country, with the ultimate goal of reducing the obesity epidemic. It offers potentially valuable guidance in improving the quality and effect of the actions being implemented.

The recommendations of Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts focus on efforts to increase the likelihood that actions taken to prevent obesity will be evaluated, that their progress in accelerating the prevention of obesity will be monitored, and that the most promising practices will be widely disseminated.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON EVALUATING PROGRESS OF OBESITY PREVENTION EFFORTS
• Reviewers
• Preface
• Summary
  • STUDY APPROACH AND SCOPE
  • AN EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • INDICATORS OF PROGRESS
  • TAKING ACTION TO SUPPORT THE NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION MEASUREMENT IDEAS
  • FINAL THOUGHTS
• 1. Introduction
  • PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
  • EVALUATING OBESITY PREVENTION COMPARED TO OTHER PREVENTION EFFORTS
  • CURRENT CONTEXT FOR EVALUATING OBESITY EFFORTS
  • A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY
  • VISION
  • USERS OF EVALUATION
  • EXISTING OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES OF OBESITY PREVENTION EFFORTS
  • THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION CAMPAIGN
  • OBESITY-RELATED RESEARCH PRIORITIES
  • CONTEXT FOR ASSESSMENT, MONITORING, SURVEILLANCE, AND SUMMATIVE EVALUATION NEEDS
  • SUMMARY
  • OVERVIEW OF THE REPORT
  • REFERENCES
• 2. Improving the Usefulness of Obesity Evaluation Information to Potential Users
  • COMMUNITY COALITIONS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • COMMUNITY DECISION MAKERS AND MANAGERS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS AND HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • EMPLOYERS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • FEDERAL AND STATE POLICY MAKERS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • ADVOCATES FOR OBESITY PREVENTION AS EVALUATION USERS
  • FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCY ADMINISTRATORS AS EVALUATION USERS
  • FUNDER ORGANIZATIONS AS USERS OF EVALUATION
  • GENERAL FACTORS AFFECTING USEFULNESS OF EVALUATION ACROSS TYPES OF USERS
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 3. Framework for Evaluation
  • COMPONENTS OF THE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Indicators for the Evaluation Plans
  • METHODOLOGY
  • INDICATORS
  • DATA SOURCES
  • GAPS IN EXISTING INDICATORS
  • SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 5. Evaluating Progress in Promoting Health Equity: A Review of Methods and Tools for Measurement
  • DEFINING WHO, WHAT, AND WHERE: ESSENTIAL DEFINITIONS
  • GAP ANALYSIS
  • CONCLUSION
  • REFERENCES
• 6. National Obesity Evaluation Plan
  • INTRODUCTION
  • RELATIONSHIP OF NATIONAL OBESITY EVALUATION PLAN TO PROPOSED EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
  • NATIONAL OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • STATE OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • EXAMPLES OF REGIONAL OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 7. Community Obesity Assessment and Surveillance
  • GOALS OF CAS COMPARED TO INTERVENTION MONITORING AND SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
  • WHY MEASURE STATUS OR PROGRESS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
  • LOCALITY-SPECIFIC AND DIVERSE DATA
  • OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT AND SURVEILLANCE
  • DEFINE COMMUNITY BOUNDARIES
  • ENGAGE COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND OTHER KEY STAKEHOLDERS
  • PLAN ASSESSMENT/SURVEILLANCE
  • COLLECT DATA
  • ANALYZE AND INTERPRET THE DATA
  • DISSEMINATE FINDINGS
  • CURRENT PRACTICE IN COMMUNITY ASSESMENT AND SURVEILLANCE
  • SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 8. Monitoring and Summative Evaluation of Community Interventions
  • DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY-LEVEL INTERVENTIONS
  • THE SPECIAL CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY-LEVEL INITIATIVES
  • TOWARD A COMMUNITY-LEVEL MONITORING AND SUMMATIVE EVALUATION PLAN
  • COMPONENTS OF A COMMUNITY-LEVEL OBESITY INTERVENTION MONITORING AND SUMMATIVE EVALUATION PLAN
  • EXAMPLE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF EVALUATING COMMUNITY-LEVEL COMPONENTS OF THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION
  • SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 9. Systems and Evaluation: Placing a Systems Approach in Context
  • EVALUATING THE “WHAT HAPPENED?” QUESTION
  • EVALUATING THE “WHAT WILL HAPPEN?” QUESTION
  • EVALUATING THE “WHAT IS THE BEST CHOICE?” QUESTION
  • HOW WILL EVALUATION EFFORTS BENEFIT FROM A SYSTEMS APPROACH
  • A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE ON THE CHALLENGE OF EVALUATING OBESITY PREVENTION
  • USING A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE TO ADDRESS POPULATION HEALTH: A REVIEW OF PRIOR IOM REPORTS
  • EVALUATION TOOLS AND SYSTEMS SCIENCE
  • SYSTEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COMMITTEE'S PROPOSED EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
  • SUMMARY
  • REFERENCES
• 10. Taking Action: Recommendations for Evaluating Progress of Obesity Prevention Efforts
  • OBESITY EVALUATION PLANS
  • CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION MEASUREMENT IDEAS
  • FINAL THOUGHTS
  • REFERENCES
• APPENDIXES
  • A Acronyms
  • B Glossary
  • C Guiding Principles for Evaluation
  • D Table of Indicator Data Sources
  • E Disparities Tables
  • F National Plan Resources
  • G Community Health Assessment and Surveillance Resources
  • H Community Intervention Resources
  • I Panel Agenda
  • J Committee Biographies

This study was supported by a grant between the National Academy of Sciences and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Suggested citation:

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2013. Evaluating obesity prevention efforts: A plan for measuring progress. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.