Conceptual Approaches in the Prevention of Child Overweight in Germany: Project SkAP

Abstract

Childhood overweight and obesity together with related diseases are one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Since the prevention of overweight and obesity is given a high priority, there is a complex landscape of interventions with multiple subjects, targets groups, and approaches for different settings in Germany. In order to provide a systematic overview, the research project Systematization of Conceptual Approaches for the Prevention of Child Overweight in Settings (SkAP) developed as a first step a catalogue of descriptive indicators to analyze the conceptual approaches of interventions on overweight and obesity prevention in childhood and adolescence. In sum, all indicators can be assigned to five global dimensions: (1) setting, (2) conceptual approach, (3) target group, (4) quality requirements for the conception of universal prevention (in generic and setting-specific), and (5) determinants of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. These dimensions were used in the second project step to analyze overweight prevention programs in four settings in order to systemize the applied conceptual approaches. This in turn was the basis for the third step of the research project, which entailed identifying gaps, improvement potential, and recommendations for action. This project contributes to the improvement of childhood overweight and obesity prevention measures by focusing on setting-specific approaches to health promotion and prevention. First of all, it provides a systematic overview of the approaches in three settings and a field, which allows an in-depth overview at both a generic and setting-specific level. Recommendations focused on gaps in the scientific evidence concerning the implementation and transparency of these prevention measures and include increasing coordination, developing checklists, and creating an intervention database. The results of the SkAP project can be used in the quality-oriented development of intervention measures, which could make it valuable for the implementation of the new German Preventive Health Care Act.