The rising prevalence of overweight and obesity among Australian children, and associated health risks and economic burden to the health care system, continues to raise concerns. While the urgent need for coherent and comprehensive strategies for effective prevention is acknowledged globally, the implementation of appropriate management approaches at scale is lacking for children already above a healthy weight.
This research investigated factors affecting the implementation of two evidence-based weight management programs, Go4Fun (NSW) and PEACH (QLD), targeting families of primary aged children (7-13 years). Interviews were conducted with a broad range of program stakeholders, representative of geographical location, stakeholder role and variation in program implementation across the states. Forty-eight stakeholders were interviewed across 14 sites about their experiences in implementing Go4Fun or PEACH. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) was used to structure collection and analysis of data.
Findings will be reported against the CFIR constructs assessed identifying those constructs that strongly or weakly influenced implementation effectiveness between sites with un-sustained versus sustained program implementation effectiveness. Such learnings are paramount to guide future investment in the implementation and scale-up of evidence based strategies to address childhood obesity management.