Evaluation

1. An online survey was conducted in February 2005 to gain understanding about attitudes and opinions concering the obesity problem and needs for research.
Click here to view the survey questions.
Click here to read the executive summary.

2. ECOR conducted a survey at the 2nd King County Overweight Prevention Initiative held on May 13, 2005 to determine what types of obesity research questions stakeholders at the meeting were most interested in exploring. The participants largely represented public health and academia on the issue of overweight and obesity.

Research questions fell into the general themes of behavior change, modeling, policy, multi-cultural factors, partners, community-based participatory research, marketing, economics, and the built environment. The following questions reflect the general and recurring topics of interest to stakeholders:

• What are the psychosocial factors that influence diet and physical activity, as well as overweight and obesity? How are stress and diet related?
• How does urban planning/built environment affect obesity and how does it interplay with individual choice?
• What is the public health and dollar cost of overweight/obesity?
• What evidence is there that school nutrition policies impact childhood obesity?
• How can we create healthier environments so as to reduce/eliminate health disparities?
• What are the most effective health messages for general community, youth, or communities of color?
• What are the economic barriers to healthy eating and physical activity?
• How does the availability of bike-friendly streets/walking trails impact obesity?

The results of these evaluations will help ECOR to make the connection between research and policy in order to meet the goal of transforming the research environment by fostering new interdisciplinary teams working towards real solutions to the obesity epidemic.