Journal Article

Tracking implementation within a community-led whole of system approach to address childhood overweight and obesity in south west Sydney, Australia

Maitland, Nicola, Johnstone, Michael, Whelan, Jill, Creighton, Doug, Wardle, Karen, Allender, Steven, Jalaludin, Bin, Hayward, Josh

2021

Overview

Background Obesity is a chronic disease that contributes to additional comorbidities including diabetes, kidney disease and several cancers. Change4Campbelltown implemented a ‘whole of system’ approach to address childhood overweight and obesity. We present methods to track implementation and stakeholder engagement in Change4Campbelltown. Methods Change4Campbelltown aimed to build capacity among key leaders and the broader community to apply techniques from systems thinking to develop community-led actions that address childhood obesity. Change4Campbelltown comprised development of a stakeholder-informed Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) and locally-tailored action plan, formation of key stakeholder and community working groups to prioritise and implement actions, and continuous monitoring of intervention actions. Implementation data included an action register, stakeholder engagement database and key engagement activities and were collected quarterly by the project management team over 2 years of reporting. Results Engagement activities increased level of community engagement amongst key leaders, the school-sector and community members. Community-led action increased as engagement increased and this action is mapped directly to the primary point of influence on the CLD. As action spread diversified across the CLD, the geographical spread of action within the community increased. Conclusions This paper provides a pragmatic example of the methods used to track implementation of complex interventions that are addressing childhood overweight and obesity.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Biostatistics / Body weight / Care and treatment / Central business districts / Child health services / Childhood / Childhood obesity / Children / Community / Community health services / Community health services for children / Community involvement / Community participation / Community-based interventions / Diabetes / Diabetes mellitus / Disease prevention / Environmental Health / Epidemiology / Implementation science / Intervention / Kidney diseases / Local government / Logic / Management / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Obesity / Obesity in children / Overweight / Population / Project management / Public Health / Small business / Stakeholders / Tracking implementation / Vaccine / Whole of system approach