Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Prioritize Approaches to Obesity Prevention in Childhood
2017
Recommended levels of physical activity (PA) promote a healthy body weight and reduce chronic disease risk. To help prioritize investment in PA promotion initiatives, this study estimated the impact of six recommended strategies to increase physical activity in U.S. school, afterschool, and childcare settings. Using a microsimulation model, the authors found that the number children reached by the interventions ranged from 90,000 attending a Healthy Afterschool Program to over 31 million reached by Active School Day policies. All of the interventions were estimated to increase physical activity levels among children and adolescents and could prevent 2,500 to 110,000 cases of childhood obesity, depending on the intervention implemented. In addition to obesity prevention, physical activity also has other beneficial effects, such as cognitive and behavioral benefits that were not estimated in this study.
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Prioritize Approaches to Obesity Prevention in Childhood
Source:
Cradock AL, Barrett JL, Kenney EL, Giles CM, Ward ZJ, Long MW, Resch SC, Pipito AA, Wei ER, Gortmaker SL. Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Prioritize Policy and Programmatic Approaches to Physical Activity Promotion and Obesity Prevention in Childhood. Preventive Medicine 2017; 95: S17-S27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.10.017
Not open access.