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The IDEFICS community-oriented intervention programme: a new model for childhood obesity prevention in Europe?

International Journal of Obesity volume 35, pages S16–S23 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background and objectives:

The European Union—as well as other parts of the world—faces a major challenge of increasing incidence of overweight/obesity. In particular, the increase in childhood obesity gives rise to a strong imperative for immediate action. Yet, little is known about the effectiveness of community interventions, and further research in this field is needed. There is, however, a growing consensus that such research should start from the paradigm that the current living environments tend to counteract healthy lifestyles. Questioning these environments thoroughly can help to develop new pathways for sustainable health-promoting communities. Against this background, the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) study developed and implemented innovative community-oriented intervention programmes for obesity prevention and healthy lifestyle primarily in children aged 2–10 years in eight European countries: Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.

Materials and methods:

The IDEFICS community-oriented intervention study mobilised an integrated set of interventional efforts at different levels of society, with the aim of facilitating the adoption of a healthy obesity-preventing lifestyle. The overall programme has been composed of 10 modules: three at community level, six at school level and one for parents. The main focus was on diet, physical activity and stress-coping capacity. The sphere of action encompassed both children and their (grand) parents, schools, local public authorities and influential stakeholders in the community. All materials for the interventions were centrally developed and culturally adapted.

Results:

So far, the following has been achieved: focus group research, literature review and expert consultations were done in an early phase as a basis for the development of the intervention modules. The intervention mapping protocol was followed as guide for structuring the intervention research. The overall intervention programme's duration was 2 years, but a longer-term follow-up programme is under development.

Conclusions:

This large-scale European effort is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding of this major public health challenge.

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Acknowledgements

This work was done as part of the IDEFICS study (http://www.idefics.eu). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Community within the Sixth RTD Framework Programme Contract No. 016181 (FOOD) and the grant support from EU for IDEFICS study. We thank the children for their participation in the IDEFICS study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    S De Henauw & L Maes

  2. Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    V Verbestel & I De Bourdeaudhuij

  3. Department of Paediatrics, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    S Mårild

  4. Unit of Epidemiology and Population Genetics, Institute of Food Sciences, National Research Council, Avellino, Italy

    G Barba & A Siani

  5. Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    K Bammann, A Hebestreit, K Gallois, W Ahrens & I Pigeot

  6. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Public Health Epidemiology Unit, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    G Eiben & L Lissner

  7. Laboratory of Genetic and Environmental Epidemiology, Catholic University, Campobasso, Italy

    L Iacoviello

  8. National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia

    K Konstabel

  9. Department of Paediatrics, Medical Faculty, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

    É Kovács & D Molnár

  10. Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development Research Group, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    L A Moreno

  11. Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark

    L Reisch

  12. Research and Education Institute of Child Health, Strovolos, Cyprus

    M Tornaritis

  13. Department of Philosophy, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    G Williams

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  1. S De Henauw
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  20. W Ahrens
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  21. I De Bourdeaudhuij
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on behalf of the IDEFICS Consortium

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S De Henauw.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Statement of ethics

We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations regarding the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during this research. Approval by the appropriate ethical committees was obtained by each of the eight centres engaged in the fieldwork. Participants were not subjected to any study procedure before both the children and their parents gave their consent for examinations, collection of samples, subsequent analysis and storage of personal data and collected samples. The participating children and their parents could consent to single components of the study while refraining from others.

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De Henauw, S., Verbestel, V., Mårild, S. et al. The IDEFICS community-oriented intervention programme: a new model for childhood obesity prevention in Europe?. Int J Obes 35 (Suppl 1), S16–S23 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.31

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