Reach and Implementation of Early Childhood Obesity-Reduction Efforts in LA County

• In Event: 2-144 - Reach, Implementation, and Impacts of Efforts to Reduce Early Childhood Obesity In LA County

Integrative Statement

To support children’s healthy development, strategies targeting obesity must begin with young children and their families in order to impact children’s healthy development. Accordingly, a leading public grant-making and child advocacy organization in LA funded a diverse portfolio of investments (RECO), taking a wide variety of approaches (e.g., park development, training child care providers, vending policy change) to reduce early childhood obesity and improve child outcomes, focusing on low-income communities. To understand the success of RECO in reaching targeted communities across LA County and implementing a variety of strategies to reduce early childhood obesity, this study aims to 1) assess the reach of RECO across LA County (i.e., which communities were targeted, served, and/or had the potential to benefit from RECO activities) and 2) identify facilitators and barriers to successful reach and implementation of RECO activities.

This study employs a mixed methods design. Data collection included 14 focus groups with a total of 117 community members targeted by RECO investments, 25 semi-structured interviews with key informants from RECO-funded grantee organizations, and extant data from Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE) WIC administrative data, the American Community Survey, and RECO grantee progress reports to the funder. Geospatial analyses were conducted using ArcGIS with location collected via grantee progress reports and confirmed through key informant interviews; qualitative analyses of key informant interview and focus group data were conducted using NVivo11.

To address our first goal, geospatial analyses indicated that RECO activities occurred in many communities across LA County (see Figure 1). RECO successfully reached 32% of the census tracts across LA County with one or more activities. However, when looking specifically at high-need communities (defined by prevalence of young children, poverty, and child obesity), geospatial analyses revealed that a majority of these communities were not reached (e.g., 59% of census tracts in which more than 20% of WIC-participating 2 to 5-year-olds were obese did not have RECO activities). Similarly, as an example, Figure 2 shows that in one region of LA County, there is some, but not complete, overlap in the location of RECO activities and high-poverty census tracts.

Addressing our second goal, qualitative findings highlighted the importance of awareness and relationship building for the successful reach and implementation of RECO activities. When families were aware of the RECO activities, they were more likely to engage with the activities. However, they often were unaware of RECO activities or didn’t recognize its projects by name. Families reported wanting to know more about RECO activities to support their children’s healthy development. In addition, grantees built important relationships with families, policy-makers, and other key stakeholders, which facilitated their RECO work. Engaging the community was necessary for the reach and implementation of RECO activities, but at times collaboration was challenging.

Discussion will focus on implications and lessons learned for future childhood obesity prevention work aimed at supporting healthy child development.

Authors

• Hayley Roper-Fingerhut, Populous Consulting
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Blocklin, Abt Associates
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meaghan Glenn, Abt Associates
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeremiah Garza, Samuels Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sallie Yoshida, Samuels Center
  Non-Presenting Author