Online Program

284378
Gaining traction: What Maine has done to move the needle on childhood obesity


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 8:50 a.m. - 9:10 a.m.

Tory Rogers, MD, The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
Let's Go! is a childhood obesity prevention program aimed at increasing physical activity and healthy eating for kids in Maine. It started in Greater Portland and continued to spread throughout the state of Maine. Based upon the best available evidence, Lets Go! developed 10 strategies to be implemented across settings. During the 2011-12 program year, Let's Go! collaborated with 18 dissemination partners in 15 of Maine's 16 counties. Let's Go! works to deploy a consistent message (5-2-1-0) across six community settings to reach children and their families where they live, learn, work and play. Let's Go!'s 5-2-1-0 Goes to School program focuses on helping schools create environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice. Evidence indicates that 5-2-1-0 Goes to School is a program that can create sustainable change in any school environment — large or small, urban or rural, rich or poor. Our program was created to provide schools with the resources, support and guidance they need to successfully implement evidence-based healthy eating and active living strategies. And this year, our community partners worked with schools to help change the environments where kids learn. Here are some results thus far: Each of the 10 Let's Go! strategies was implemented or sustained, in more than 50% of 134 schools reporting. Compared to other strategies, schools did best to implement and sustain changes that limit sugar sweetened beverages and provide more opportunities for students to drink water.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate efforts to reduce childhood obesity through support for environmental change and evidence-based practices in ME.

Keyword(s): Child Health Promotion, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Victoria W. Rogers is the Director of The Kids CO-OP at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. There, she oversees the development, coordination, and promotion of community-oriented, pediatric healthcare initiatives. Currently, Dr. Rogers is the Director of the Let’s Go! program. Let’s Go! uses a multi-sector approach to reach youth and families where they live, learn, work and play to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.