Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Hospital, Ghent University, Belgium.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2011 Apr;35 Suppl 1:S16-23. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2011.31.
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.
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.
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.
This large-scale European effort is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding of this major public health challenge.
欧盟以及世界其他地区面临着超重/肥胖发生率上升的重大挑战。特别是儿童肥胖的增加，迫切需要立即采取行动。然而，人们对社区干预措施的有效性知之甚少，需要在这一领域进行进一步的研究。然而，越来越多的人认为，此类研究应该从当前的生活环境往往不利于健康生活方式的范式出发。彻底质疑这些环境有助于为可持续促进健康的社区开辟新途径。在此背景下，IDEFICS（儿童和婴儿饮食和生活方式引起的健康影响的识别和预防）研究在 8 个欧洲国家（瑞典、爱沙尼亚、德国、比利时、匈牙利、意大利、西班牙和塞浦路斯）开发并实施了创新性的以社区为导向的肥胖预防和健康生活方式干预计划，主要针对 2-10 岁的儿童。
IDEFICS 以社区为导向的干预研究在社会的不同层面调动了一系列综合的干预措施，旨在促进健康的肥胖预防生活方式的采用。整个方案由 10 个模块组成：3 个社区级模块、6 个学校级模块和 1 个家长级模块。主要重点是饮食、体育活动和应对压力的能力。行动范围包括儿童及其（外）祖父母、学校、地方公共当局和社区中有影响力的利益相关者。所有干预材料均由中央开发并进行了文化适应。
迄今为止，已经完成了以下工作：在早期阶段进行了焦点小组研究、文献回顾和专家咨询，作为开发干预模块的基础。干预映射协议被用作指导结构干预研究的指南。整个干预方案的持续时间为 2 年，但正在开发一个长期的后续方案。
这项大规模的欧洲努力预计将对理解这一重大公共卫生挑战做出重大贡献。
