The cost-effectiveness of a successful community-based obesity prevention program: the be active eat well program.

Objective: To examine the cost-effectiveness of Be Active Eat Well (BAEW), a large, multifaceted, community-based capacity-building demonstration program that promoted healthy eating and physical activity for Australian children aged 4-12 years between 2003 and 2006.

Design And Methods: A quasi-experimental, longitudinal design was used with anthropometric data collected at baseline (1001 children-intervention; 1183-comparator) and follow-up. A societal perspective was employed, with intervention resource use measured retrospectively based on process evaluation reports, school newsletters, reports, and key stakeholder interviews, and valued in 2006 Australian dollars (AUD).