Reducing obesity in early childhood: results from Romp & Chomp, an Australian community-wide intervention program.
BACKGROUND
There is growing evidence that community-based interventions can reduce childhood obesity in older children.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to determine the effectiveness of the Romp & Chomp intervention in reducing obesity and promoting healthy eating and active play in children aged 0-5 y.


METHODS
Romp & Chomp was a community-wide, multisetting, multistrategy intervention conducted in Australia from 2004 to 2008. The intervention occurred in a large regional city (Geelong) with a target group of 12,000 children and focused on community capacity building and environmental (political, sociocultural, and physical) changes to increase healthy eating and active play in early-childhood care and educational settings. The evaluation was repeat cross-sectional with a quasiexperimental design and comparison sample. Main outcome measures were body mass index (BMI), standardized BMI (zBMI; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 reference charts), and prevalence of overweight/obesity and obesity-related behaviors in children aged 2 and 3.5 y.


RESULTS
After the intervention there was a significantly lower mean weight, BMI, and zBMI in the 3.5-y-old subsample and a significantly lower prevalence of overweight/obesity in both the 2- and 3.5-y-old subsamples (by 2.5 and 3.4 percentage points, respectively) than in the comparison sample (a difference of 0.7 percentage points; P < 0.05) compared with baseline values. Intervention child-behavioral data showed a significantly lower intake of packaged snacks (by 0.23 serving), fruit juice (0.52 serving), and cordial (0.43 serving) than that in the comparison sample (all P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
A community-wide multisetting, multistrategy intervention in early-childhood settings can reduce childhood obesity and improve young children's diets. This trial was registered with the Australian Clinical Trials Registry at anzctr.org.au as ACTRN12607000374460.
de Silva-Sanigorski
Andrea M
AM
WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention Deakin University Geelong Australia. andrea.sanigorski@deakin.edu.au
Bell
A Colin
AC
Kremer
Peter
P
Nichols
Melanie
M
Crellin
Maree
M
Smith
Michael
M
Sharp
Sharon
S
de Groot
Florentine
F
Carpenter
Lauren
L
Boak
Rachel
R
Robertson
Narelle
N
Swinburn
Boyd A
BA
D001315:Australia; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D057191:Capacity Building; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014504:Urban Health