Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?
up. Community-based intervention research should receive increased federal attention and funding. Intervention research identifies programs that improve the short-, intermediate-, and long-term outcomes that will lead to favorable health outcomes. Intervention research is a special form of evaluation that is scientifically sophisticated and expensive. Intervention research identifies not only effective programs but also assesses cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and the potential for expansion. Federal support for intervention research is essential and could be channeled through CDC’s PRCs to enable more intervention research and the development of a thematic network for the prevention of childhood obesity. One largely untapped research opportunity is found in natural experiments2 (TRB and IOM, 2005) involving political, environmental, or social changes implemented for reasons that may or may not pertain to childhood obesity but that might be expected to affect dietary or physical ac
