Networks for prevention in 19 communities at the start of a large-scale community-based obesity prevention initiative.

Community-based obesity prevention efforts are dependent on the strength and function of collaborative networks across multiple community members and organizations. There is little empirical work on understanding how community network structure influences obesity prevention capacity. We describe network structures within 19 local government communities prior to a large-scale community-based obesity prevention intervention, Healthy Together Victoria, Australia (2012-2015).

Development and testing of a novel survey to assess Stakeholder-driven Community Diffusion of childhood obesity prevention efforts.

Background: Involving groups of community stakeholders (e.g., steering committees) to lead community-wide health interventions appears to support multiple outcomes ranging from policy and systems change to individual biology.

Understanding a successful obesity prevention initiative in children under 5 from a systems perspective.

Introduction/background: Systems thinking represents an innovative and logical approach to understanding complexity in community-based obesity prevention interventions. We report on an approach to apply systems thinking to understand the complexity of a successful obesity prevention intervention in early childhood (children aged up to 5 years) conducted in a regional city in Victoria, Australia.

Methods: A causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed to represent system elements related to a successful childhood obesity prevention intervention in early childhood.

A Community Based Systems Diagram of Obesity Causes.

Introduction: Application of system thinking to the development, implementation and evaluation of childhood obesity prevention efforts represents the cutting edge of community-based prevention. We report on an approach to developing a system oriented community perspective on the causes of obesity.

Methods: Group model building sessions were conducted in a rural Australian community to address increasing childhood obesity.