TransformUs Wellbeing – working together with communities to address childhood obesity
Primary schools in regional Victoria are participating in a trial intervention to prevent childhood obesity by targeting multiple health behaviours.
Dr Claudia Strugnell is leading a new project to develop, test, and disseminate a multicomponent intervention in primary schools in south-west Victoria.
TransformUs Wellbeing builds on IPAN’s flagship TransformUs program which focuses on increasing movement and reducing sitting time during the school day.
The intervention, which targets students in grades 2, 3, 4 and 5, is being designed together with teachers, students and community members to include successful TransformUs strategies as well as strategies to improve healthy eating, sleep and wellbeing while incorporating a whole of school approach.
Students from 26 primary schools in Warrnambool, Corangamite and Moyne local government areas will be invited to wear an activity monitor for seven days, with children in grades 4 and 5 asked to complete a questionnaire about their current physical activity, eating behaviours, sleep and wellbeing.
Eight schools will then be randomly selected to receive the intervention, while another eight will serve as a control group. The control group will have access to the intervention resources after testing.
Dr Strugnell said obesity was more prevalent among children in regional Victoria compared to their metropolitan counterparts.
“Overweight and obesity in children affects their health and wellbeing and is a strong indicator of adulthood obesity, highlighting the need for prevention in childhood,” she said.
“Childhood obesity is largely preventable, although interventions to date have typically targeted single behaviours such as physical activity, sedentary behaviour or diet, with small to modest effectiveness.
“Our intervention embeds capacity within primary schools by helping teachers, students, parents/guardians and others in the community understand the complex system around them and how to intervene. We believe that building this capacity and targeting multiple health behaviours will lead to sustained changes in behavioural drivers of childhood obesity.”
Schools will select from a list of evidence-based actions around physical activity (e.g. active classroom lessons), nutrition (e.g. fruit and vegetables in the classroom), sleep (e.g. sleep hygiene homework) and wellbeing (e.g. mindfulness lessons) and be supported to implement these by the Deakin research team.
The project is funded through a VicHealth Impact Research Grant. Key partners on the project include Barwon South-West Public Health Unit and ACHPER Victoria.
