Confronting Obesity: Co-creating policy with youth

Project Information

CO-CREATE

Grant agreement ID: 774210

DOI 10.3030/774210

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost € 9 757 943,75

EU contribution € 9 678 653,75

Coordinated by

FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CO-CREATE (Confronting Obesity: Co-creating policy with youth)

Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Overweight and obesity is affecting children in the EU and worldwide at epidemic levels, affecting nearly 40 % of children in some countries. Overweight or obesity is a major risk factor for individual health and wellbeing, increasing the risk for a range of health-related problems ranging from type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary disease to mental health and quality of life. The future impact of the obesity epidemic on societal level includes rising demands on health care services and lower productivity in the affected population. Action is needed to halt this rise, as is reinforced by the WHO Global Action Plan for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and the EU action plan on childhood obesity. A large body of intervention research has been published for the younger age groups, concluding that beneficial effects are present in preventing overweight and obesity provided that implemented programmes are long-term and intensive. Less is known regarding effective prevention strategies in older children (age 13-18), and adolescents are to a limited extent involved when such strategies are formulated. Overweight and obesity in adolescent years is highly predictive of obesity in adult life. Thus, successful efforts to prevent childhood overweight and obesity has a large potential to improve health over the lifespan.

The overall aim of CO-CREATE is to prevent the continued rising prevalence of obesity among adolescents in Europe through policy actions to promote a healthier food and physical activity environment. The project will contribute to the evidence and infrastructure for local and national policy changes to make healthy choices the easiest, most appealing, and preferred choices for adolescents across Europe, thus reducing the burden of obesity and related non-communicable diseases, both now and in the future.CO-CREATE will demonstrate a new model for identifying, generating, testing and supporting the implementation of policies that aim to improve energy balance related behaviours in the adolescent population.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

DATED TO M48
Over the project period CO-CREATE has:

Developed the MOVING policy database for physical activity to complement the existing NOURISHING database on food and nutrition. Both databases have been refined and include an increasing number of verified, benchmarked policies from across Europe and international.

Provided a systematic review of published research literature addressing measures implemented to prevent adolescent overweight and obesity, and performed analyses of time trends in energy balance related behaviors in Europe and South Africa.

Performed system mapping with youth in six European countries (Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal and the UK) and South-Africa, and synthesized the results to identify the perceived drivers of childhood obesity among adolescents.

Organized Youth Alliances in five European countries (as listed above) using a project developed engagement protocol guided by the principles of participatory action research, resulting in a broad range of policy ideas proposed, formulated, and researched by youth.

Developed, tested, used and launched an in-person and a digital Dialogue Forum model, designed to promote youth leadership and empowerment and mitigate conflicts of interests, and implemented the model in organizing Dialogue forums with youth from the Youth Alliances and other stakeholders to discuss and refine youth selected policy ideas.

Developed a protocol for policy implementation and evaluation and investigated opportunities for its implementation in the countries listed above. Developed a systems dynamics model, including elements related to weight development, physical activity, food environment, social norms, and mental health.

Designed protocols for data collection, protection and sharing and how to address ethical issues (foreseen and unforeseen events), and collected research data at a central data server, laying the groundwork for open access data sharing.

Developed an extensive protocol for dissemination and exploitation of project results, including a home page for the project (www.CO-CREATE.eu) a youth-friendly, interactive web-page for Healthy Voices – youth driving change (www.worldobesity.org/healthy-voices) set up in collaboration with the STOP project, and extensive use of social media (including Instagram and twitter accounts).

Published scientific papers, policy briefs and reports (all available at the project main website), and maintained Healthy Voices website as a capacity building site for young people.

Launched A CO-CREATE documentary and video series outlining key project work, and highlighting the important need to include young people in policy and research drawing on CO-CREATE experiences.

Fostered strong collaborative relationships with other Horizon 2020 and European-wide projects, allowing identification of and building on synergies and cross-fertilization of ideas.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

CO-CREATE has the following key expected results:

Databases of policies which directly or indirectly influence food choices (NOURISHING) and physical activities (MOVING) across Europe; Valid, reliable, and easily accessible tools for monitoring and benchmarking policies which directly or indirectly can influence energy balance related behaviors (EBRB).

Large-scale investigations of changes in overweight and obesity rates, as well as EBRB across countries over time; specifically provide new information regarding such changes in relation to relevant European and national policies and differences according to socio-economic background of adolescents.

Visual system maps of policy-dependent multi-level drivers of adolescent obesity across five European countries and South Africa.

Novel and context-specific policy options - created with youth - that will contribute to upstream overweight prevention, as well as reducing inequalities in overweight/obesity among adolescents across Europe.

Policy dialog forums between public and private sector stakeholders (including adolescents) designed to contribute towards wider acceptance and support for effective obesity prevention policies.

System dynamics modelling to assess and predict the potential impacts of selected evidence-based and co-created policy options for obesity prevention, including the socioeconomic distribution of any such impact.

CO-CREATE project members and advisory board at the 2019 annual project meeting in Amsterdam.

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CO-CREATE activities with young people