Tackling the problem of overweight and obesity: the Dutch approach.

Objective: The aim of this article is to share the Dutch experience of a nation-wide approach to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity. This is an practice example of national health policy.

Methods: The Ministry of Health facilitates three complementary initiatives to tackle overweight and obesity: i) the Knowledge Centre Overweight (KCO) (since 2002) to enhance knowledge about prevention and treatment of overweight, ii) the Covenant on Overweight (CO) (since 2005), a public-private partnership, iii) the Partnership Overweight Netherlands (PON) (since 2008), to facilitate the development and implementation of a chronic disease management model.