INTRODUCTION
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research. www.nccor.org. Accessed June 24, 2020.
The JPB Foundation. https://www.jpbfoundation.org/. Accessed June 24, 2020.
Agency for Healthcare Quality Research. Digital Health Care Research.https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/evaluation-resources/workflow-assessment-health-it-toolkit/all-workflow-tools/multivoting. Accessed June 24, 2020.
National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research. Advancing Measurement for Childhood Obesity Workshop Series. https://www.nccor.org/measurement-workshop-series/. Accessed June 18, 2020.
MAJOR CHALLENGES

OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPECIFIC ACTIONS

Priority a These opportunities represent actions described during the workshop that were voted on and of particular importance during the day-long discussions. SDOH, social determinants of health; PA, physical activity; SB, sedentary behavior; EHR, electronic health record; ECE, early childhood education; RWJF, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; NCCOR, National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research; SNAP-Ed, SNAP Education; HUD, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; NOPREN, Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation; PAPREN, Physical Activity Policy Research and Evaluation Network; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; WIC, Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program. | SDOH | Diet | PA/SB | Sleep |
---|---|---|---|---|
Develop new measures | ||||
Develop measurement methods for capturing exposures for diet and physical activity for children under age 6 years considering key constructs for key developmental stages. | X | X | ||
Define diet-related terms and core indicators/domains that are feasible to measure (including positive health). | X | |||
Define elements of diet quality. | X | |||
Determine how to measure the 24-hour cycle. | X | X | X | |
Develop recommendations for constructs for each developmental age to include in sleep questionnaires. | X | |||
Develop methods to better understand physical activity patterns. | X | |||
Measure parental competency in relationship to sleep and other behaviors relevant to obesity. | X | X | X | |
Measure parents’ early organization of child's sleep and association with later sleep trajectories; connect these indicators with early feeding practices. | X | |||
Consider issues of chronotypes and other constructs relevant to obesity and metabolic disorders. | X | X | ||
Develop and adapt multi-level PA measures for understudied populations at high risk of childhood obesity through an intersectional, historical trauma, critical race theory lens. | X | |||
Review and identify which social and environment measures (e.g., social capital) may be relevant to PA. | X | |||
Understand how to measure peer/social environments drawing from expertise in child psychology field. Are specific issues unique to diet and PA?
| X | X | X | |
Develop better psychometrically sound measures, particularly those involving perceptions. This might include measures of implementation and systems change; measures of the social environment that are specific to influences on youth activity (peers, screens); measures of community engagement (community voice) in built environment process and decision making; and measures on perceptions of unhealthy food availability, food marketing, and online food environments. | X | X | X | X |
Develop measures for surveillance of children's food environments beyond school and ECE. Consider alternate data sources that help characterize the food environment, e.g., zoning policies, crime data. | X | |||
Address gaps in active transport measurement and incorporate measures into surveillance systems
| X | |||
Create measures that have input from sectors and decision makers and are action-oriented; position measures so that people can use them. | X | X | X | |
Develop new measures in implementation science to determine what works in ECE settings. | X | X | ||
Review what is known | ||||
Connect developmental milestones with feeding practices. | X | |||
Conduct a landscape scan of what is known about improving sensitivity of current sleep measures to enable capturing change within interventions for sleep. | X | |||
Integrate principles of nutrition, child development, and structure into identifying constructs relevant to responsive feeding and measuring it. Consider how to extrapolate this principle of responsive parenting to the behaviors of physical activity and sleep. | X | X | X | |
Examine the feasibility of using health and childhood obesity measures in non-health studies and surveys with an initial focus on housing, transportation, and planning. | X | X | X | |
Build measurement tools, guidance, and data resources | ||||
Build measurement tools | ||||
Create a roadmap for measure selection and adaptation
| X | X | X | |
Identify what SDOH metrics are most relevant to childhood obesity and provide links to existing resources of such measures
| X | X | X | |
Update/revamp the NCCOR Measures Registry
| X | X | X | X |
Create an annotated accelerometry data repository. | X | |||
Develop toolkits and roadmaps for optimal PA measures selection. | X | |||
Develop guidance on measures | ||||
Create a repository of best practices and feedback systems. | X | X | X | |
Develop guidance on incorporating SDOH measures into: (1) surveillance and (2) large cohort studies of communities. | X | X | X | |
Help practitioners optimize the relevant set of measures for EHR, evaluation, or research. | X | X | X | |
Develop better ways to engage with and communicate with research end users. Develop tools with end users to increase the utility of data. | X | X | X | |
Create planning tool for communities to improve built environment (i.e., a new “active communities” tool). For example, it would include constructs to improve a person's route to desired destinations. The tool should build on existing work and should be written to address a specific purpose (e.g., surveillance, local data, equity). | X | X | X | |
Enhance data resources | ||||
Foster greater dissemination of data such as through data repositories and warehouses. | X | X | X | X |
Improve the granularity of data collection and sources
| X | X | X | |
Design policies and program evaluation and monitoring systems taking into account the socio-ecological model and Complex Adaptive Systems frameworks. Such systems are needed for all of the behaviors relevant to childhood obesity. | X | X | X | X |
Create “proof of principle” surveillance systems. Deliberately select communities in which to conduct deep-dive data collection. This approach starts small vs building a national surveillance system that might be limited in number of measures. | X | X | X | |
Enhance capacity, dissemination, and collaboration | ||||
Capacity/Dissemination | ||||
Encourage capacity building through webinars. Suggested topics include:
| X | X | X | |
Enhance impact of dissemination efforts by using approaches, such as community engaged research, adapting tools, ethical issues, critical race theory. | X | X | X | |
Promote uptake and appropriate adoption of structural measures. | X | X | X | X |
Engage experts from other areas that are more advanced in such measurement. | X | X | X | |
Compile theoretical frameworks and approaches to support and inform community engagement. This may require framing the projects around issues the communities care about, e.g., climate change, multi-disciplinary solutions to local problems. Pay particular attention to populations that have received little attention (e.g., immigrants). | X | X | X | |
Build capacity for citizen science in PA in high-risk communities. | X | |||
Foster multisector/agency partnerships (e.g., HUD, transportation). | X | X | X | |
Improve dissemination; publish in diverse forms; publish null results on what doesn't work. | X | X | X | |
Highlight examples/case studies, such as historical index/ structural. | X | X | X | |
Create a roadmap to link the growing body of existing work on SDOH to childhood obesity (e.g., Health and Transportation Index). | X | X | X | |
Determine how to obtain streamlined access to the food retail data-sharing agreements (e.g., time-intensive intercept surveys have been used to understand impact of the kids’ meal default beverage policy—retailers have sales data that directly answer the question). | X | |||
Establish communications with technology companies, such as Google or Verizon, to explore ways of using technology to gather and analyze data. This could include talking with companies that already use Google street-level and other data for tracking PA or other health data. | X | X | ||
Collaboration | ||||
Establish avenues for information sharing and connecting across sectors such as through digital channels, annual meetings, shared membership on panels and other approaches
| X | X | X | |
Explore ways for various disciplines, such as housing and transportation, to become versed in each other's methods and vocabularies, perhaps through an online hub for information sharing
| X | X | X | |
Continue work from the December 2019 HUD-CDC-NIH meeting to discuss additional specific metrics and opportunities for collaboration. | X | X | X | |
Encourage team science, trans-disciplinary teams, and support incorporating team science into academic training. | X | X | X | |
Develop research methods, approaches, and enhanced linkage | ||||
Methods/Approaches | ||||
Encourage efforts to combine measures and methods in the same study (triangulation). | X | X | X | |
Encourage research on reliability and validity of capturing sleep and activity parameters via one device; such an approach could streamline measurement of multiple variables associated with obesity risk. | X | X | ||
Make use of multiple measurement systems to obtain a representative picture of child sleep
| X | |||
Develop methods and approaches to address declining survey response rates, such as using hybrid approaches for surveillance. May need to combine and triangulate data. | X | X | X | |
Encourage improved and diverse sample sizes (innovative methods could allow smaller sample sizes). | X | X | X | |
Develop approaches to capture structural/historical factors that may influence PA. | X | |||
Develop ways to improve understanding of parent-child interactions in context of facilitating PA (likely varies by age). | X | |||
Develop approaches to encourage better and more extensive use of NHANES dietary data. Some approaches include:
| X | |||
Enhance data linkages | ||||
Assess and identify the most important data linkages for weight related data in the areas of physical activity/sedentary behavior, nutrition, sleep, SDOH. | X | X | X | X |
Develop methods to link local, state, and national data. | X | X | X | |
Develop systems modeling and other approaches for measuring “how” people interact with food and physical activity environments to understand factors influencing interactions, such as social supports, cultural influences, built environment/design, and consumer behaviors. | X | X | ||
Expand data collection, research, and publication | ||||
Expand data collection | ||||
Collect data to learn more about where and how child-level physical activity occurs. | X | |||
Collect data on perceived discrimination (developed and tested in Black Americans) as a measure of SDOH; assess its validity for use in other populations experiencing discrimination. | X | |||
Collect data on acculturation and pathways to acculturation as they may lead to different lifestyle behaviors among immigrants and influence how immigrants respond to interventions. | X | |||
Ensure policy data are collected with meaningful geographic context
| X | X | ||
Modernize ECE and afterschool (particularly, school-based) surveillance systems. | X | X | ||
Encourage research and publication | ||||
Encourage research of how responsive parenting influences children's obesity related behaviors (diet, PA, SB, and sleep). | X | X | X | |
Publish and find additional ways to use data that have been collected but remain unpublished; such data may help with longitudinal research. | X | X | X | |
Identify and address biases of using found/repurposed data. Determine who are not represented in such data and address endogeneity issues. | X | X | X | |
Explore how social, family, and environmental contexts influence sleep and how those contexts evolve with age. | X | |||
Encourage and support efforts to engage in “deep dive” examination of interactions in the behavioral and social and physical environment. | X | X | X | |
Encourage examination of key transitions across the life span that offer opportunities to change PA and diet habits | X | X |
1 Develop New Measures
2 Review What Is Known and Maximize Cross-sectoral Collaboration
3 Build Measurement Tools, Guidance, and Data Resources
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research. www.nccor.org. Accessed June 24, 2020.
4 Enhance Capacity, Dissemination, and Collaboration
5 Develop Research Methods, Approaches, and Enhanced Linkage
6 Expand Data Collection, Research, and Publication
EMERGING AREAS FOR RESEARCH, DATA, AND RESOURCE NEEDS
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NCHS Data Linked to HUD Housing Assistance Program Files. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-linkage/hud.htm. Accessed June 24, 2020.
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. National Household Travel Survey. https://nhts.ornl.gov. Accessed June 24, 2020.
Data Workgroup of the Interdepartmental Health Equity Collaborative (IHEC). Compendium of Federal Datasets Addressing Health Disparities. Rockville, MD.https://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdf/2019%20IHEC%20Data%20Compendium_FullDocument_RegularFormat%20-%202-6-20-508-2.pdf Published 2019. Accessed June 18, 2020.
PhenX Social Determinants of Health Working Group. About Social Determinants of Health. https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/collections/sdoh. Accessed June 18, 2020.
CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS
WHO. Developing new guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior.https://www.who.int/activities/developing-new-guidelines-on-physical-activity-and-sedentary-behaviour-for-youth-adults-and-sub-populations. Accessed June 18, 2020.
WHO. Inter-Agency Technical Consultation on Infant and Young Child Feeding Indicator. Geneva, Switzerland.https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/inter-agency-technical-consultation-on-infant-and-young-child-feeding-indicators. Published 2018. Accessed June 18, 2020.
PhenX Social Determinants of Health Working Group. About Social Determinants of Health. https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/collections/sdoh. Accessed June 18, 2020.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research. www.nccor.org. Accessed June 24, 2020.
- Institute of Medicine. Evaluating obesity prevention efforts: A plan for measuring progress.The National Academies Press, Washington, DC2013https://doi.org/10.17226/18334
The JPB Foundation. https://www.jpbfoundation.org/. Accessed June 24, 2020.
- Identification of measurement needs to prevent childhood obesity in high-risk populations and environments.Am J Prev Med. 2020; 59: 746-754https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.012
- Rethinking behavioral approaches to compliment biological advances to understand the etiology, prevention, and treatment of childhood obesity.Child Obes. 2019; 15: 353-358https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2019.0109
- Strategies to improve physical activity surveillance among youth in the United States.J Pediatr. 2019; 210: 226-231https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2019.03.022
- National Nutrition Research Roadmap 2016‒2021: Advancing Nutrition Research to Improve and Sustain Health.Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research, Washington, DC2016
Agency for Healthcare Quality Research. Digital Health Care Research.https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/evaluation-resources/workflow-assessment-health-it-toolkit/all-workflow-tools/multivoting. Accessed June 24, 2020.
National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research. Advancing Measurement for Childhood Obesity Workshop Series. https://www.nccor.org/measurement-workshop-series/. Accessed June 18, 2020.
- Challenges of health measurement in studies of health disparities.Soc Sci Med. 2014; 106: 143-150https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.045
- Engage for equity: development of community-based participatory research tools.Health Educ Behav. 2020; 47: 359-371https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120921188
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NCHS Data Linked to HUD Housing Assistance Program Files. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-linkage/hud.htm. Accessed June 24, 2020.
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. National Household Travel Survey. https://nhts.ornl.gov. Accessed June 24, 2020.
Data Workgroup of the Interdepartmental Health Equity Collaborative (IHEC). Compendium of Federal Datasets Addressing Health Disparities. Rockville, MD.https://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdf/2019%20IHEC%20Data%20Compendium_FullDocument_RegularFormat%20-%202-6-20-508-2.pdf Published 2019. Accessed June 18, 2020.
PhenX Social Determinants of Health Working Group. About Social Determinants of Health. https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/collections/sdoh. Accessed June 18, 2020.
- A national collaborative for building the field of childhood obesity research.Am J Prev Med. 2018; 54: 453-464https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.12.007
- The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research Catalogue of Surveillance Systems and Measures Registry: new tools to spur innovation and increase productivity in childhood obesity research.Am J Prev Med. 2012; 42: 433-435https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.01.004
WHO. Developing new guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior.https://www.who.int/activities/developing-new-guidelines-on-physical-activity-and-sedentary-behaviour-for-youth-adults-and-sub-populations. Accessed June 18, 2020.
WHO. Inter-Agency Technical Consultation on Infant and Young Child Feeding Indicator. Geneva, Switzerland.https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/inter-agency-technical-consultation-on-infant-and-young-child-feeding-indicators. Published 2018. Accessed June 18, 2020.
- The National Academies Press, Washington, DC2017https://doi.org/10.17226/24734 Driving Action and Progress on Obesity Prevention and Treatment: Proceedings of a Workshop.
Article info
Publication history
Identification
Copyright
User license
Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) |
Permitted
For non-commercial purposes:
- Read, print & download
- Redistribute or republish the final article
- Text & data mine
- Translate the article (private use only, not for distribution)
- Reuse portions or extracts from the article in other works
Not Permitted
- Sell or re-use for commercial purposes
- Distribute translations or adaptations of the article
Elsevier's open access license policy