Community Based Approaches to Reducing Childhood Obesity in Providence

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童肥胖是一个严重的公共卫生问题，具有显著的种族、民族和社会经济差异，是社会、经济、文化、政治和社区特定因素复杂相互作用的结果。缩小这一差距并制定有效的干预措施，重点关注社区的具体需求和优先事项，需要深入了解这些因素的复杂相互作用。因此，迫切需要开展基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR），以制定有效的协作预防和干预研究策略，以减少儿童肥胖相关的健康差距。CBPR已被证明是预防肥胖的有效方法；但是还需要更多的研究。通过这一提议，一个由布朗大学、大普罗维登斯基督教青会、CBPR和促进专家、多元化、有影响力和代表性的社区利益相关者和居民组成的社区咨询委员会组成的一流团队将在一个协作、共同学习的过程中共同努力，制定一项研究议程，以减少普罗维登斯RI与儿童肥胖相关的健康差距。拟议研究的具体目标是：1)确定社区的具体需求和兴趣，即如何通过持续的外展和社区参与活动来解决普罗维登斯的儿童肥胖问题以及潜在的行为和环境决定因素，以鼓励家长、儿童、关键利益相关者和组织积极参与合作（学术-社区）规划和评估过程。2)开发和实施一系列以社区为基础的会议/演讲/论坛，分享评估结果，并让社区成员、利益相关者和组织参与“概念图”分析和解释数据，以指导CBPR干预议程的制定。3)：与社区组织制定正式的伙伴关系协议，并制定协作性CBPR干预计划和研究议程，以缩小儿童肥胖差距。这个项目意义重大，因为：a)它的重点是减少儿童肥胖，这是一个严重的公共卫生问题；B)目标受众是低收入、种族/少数民族家庭，他们有较高的肥胖风险和相关的健康差异；c).重点社区是普罗维登斯，一个核心城市；

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Childhood obesity is a serious public health problem with significant racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities caused by a complex interplay of social, economic, cultural, political and neighborhood-specific factors. Closing this disparities gap and developing interventions that are effective and focused on the community's specific needs and priorities requires an in-depth understanding of the complex interplay of these factors. Thus, there is a compelling need to conduct Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to develop effective, collaborative prevention and intervention research strategies to reduce childhood obesity- related health disparities. CBPR has been shown to be an effective process for obesity prevention efforts; but more research is needed. Through this proposal, a stellar team including investigators from Brown University, the Greater Providence YMCA, experts in CBPR and facilitation, a Community Advisory Board of diverse, influential and representative community stakeholders and residents will work together in a collaborative, co- learning process to develop a research agenda for reducing childhood obesity-related health disparities in Providence RI. The Specific Aims of the proposed research are to: 1) Identify the community's specific needs and interests re. how to address childhood obesity and underlying behavioral and environmental determinants in Providence through ongoing outreach and community engagement activities to encourage the active involvement of parents, children, key stakeholders, and organizations in a collaborative (academic-community) planning and assessment process. 2) Develop and implement a series of community-based meetings/presentations/forums to share the assessment findings and engage community members, stakeholders and organizations in a 'Concept Mapping' analysis and interpretation of the data to guide the development of a CBPR intervention agenda. 3): Develop a formal partnership agreement with community-based organizations and a collaborative CBPR intervention plan and research agenda for reducing childhood obesity disparities. This project is significant because: a) it is focused on reducing childhood obesity, a serious public health problem; b) the target audience is low income, racial/ethnic minority families who are at higher risk of obesity and related health disparities; c). the focal community is Providence, a core city, with significant childhood obesity-related disparities; d) it is utilizing a CBPR approach with bot an academic and community PI to identify community-specific behavioral, environmental and social determinants of childhood obesity and to create a collaborative research agenda to address these challenges; e) it builds social capital in the community by training community members in formative research and intervention design methodology while facilitating reciprocal training for researchers by community members; and f) it creates a long-term, sustainable, academic-community partnership for reducing obesity-related health disparities and creating health equity.