The scope and urgency of the childhood obesity epidemic is a tremendous challenge. Childhood obesity requires concerted efforts to increase both healthy eating and physical activity in order to alter children’s daily energy balance.
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) brings together leading research funders in a public-private collaboration to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth. NCCOR’s focus is on evaluating and identifying effective interventions (particularly policy and environmental interventions) at the individual, community and population levels. They focus on areas of nutrition, physical activity and weight control, with a special emphasis on the lower-income and racial/ethnic populations at highest risk.
As of April 2011, two important resources were launched on the NCCOR website: CATALOGUE OF SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS This web tool provides a catalogue of existing surveillance systems that contain data relevant to childhood obesity research. It includes local, state and national systems that provide data at multiple levels. Surveillance systems for this Catalogue were identified by reviewing existing reports of available systems and soliciting expert review and suggestions. The systems were chosen because they provide access to publicly available raw data gathered in the United States.
MEASURES REGISTRY The NCCOR Measures Registry is a searchable database of diet and physical activity measures relevant to childhood obesity research. The purpose of this registry is to promote the consistent use of common measures and research methods across childhood obesity prevention and research at the individual, community, and population levels. • Access NCCOR’s webinar series