COACH Lunchtime Workshop

Date: Tuesday, 20th July 2021 
Cost: Included with registration

Title: An interactive workshop to introduce a framework and e-tools for the CO-creation and evaluation of food environments to Advance Community Health (COACH).

This workshop will guide participants through a framework designed to increase the likelihood of successful adaptation and sustained implementation of healthy food retail interventions into new contexts. The framework was informed by the combined experience of researchers from multiple Universities and practitioners in real-world contexts. The framework is based on a stepped process that allows continuous quality improvement within a co-creation model. The CO-creation and evaluation of food environments to Advance Community Health (COACH), framework comprises a six-phase continuous quality improvement process: 1) stakeholder engagement, evidence collection and governance; 2) communication, policy alignment and development; 3) community engagement and co-design of evidence-informed action; 4) implementation 5) feedback and evaluation, and 6) maintaining momentum and quality. This framework guides the establishment of stakeholder engagement and governance and communication processes early in intervention planning. It harnesses adaptive technologies to identify relevant relationships of cause and effect within a system to generate prioritized actions to improve the health of food retail environments. All elements of the framework have been tested separately; and is currently undergoing pilot testing as a wholistic framework. For this workshop we will workshop COACH in ‘Coachville’ a mock community to demonstrate how COACH can assist stakeholders with the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of a food retail intervention that promotes health.

Speakers: Dr. Jill Whelan, Deakin University and Assoc. Prof. Julie Brimblecombe, Monash University

EPOCH CRE Workshop

Date: Wednesday, 21st July 2021 
Cost: Included with registration

The NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH CRE) aims to reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related behaviours in the first five years of life, and their future impact.  Led by Professor Louise Baur, the CRE brought together a diverse team of experts primarily from the University of Sydney, Deakin University, Flinders University, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Otago and several state health departments.    

The first 2000 days (pregnancy to 5 years) of life is a time when many obesity related behaviours that track into adulthood are established, and biology is most amenable to change.  Australia and New Zealand are leading the field internationally on research on effective early life interventions to prevent childhood obesity.       

EPOCH CRE conducted substantial research across broad discipline areas that addressed the key knowledge gaps in research, policy and practice to improve weight-related outcomes for children.  As the CRE is concluding, it would be timely to present the outcomes from this substantial body of work at the ANZOS 2021 meeting. 

Topic: Understanding childhood obesity prevention interventions using NextGen evidence synthesis methodologies
Speaker: Kylie Hunter, University of Sydney

Topic: New rapid assessment tools to measure obesity related behaviours in 0-5 year olds
Speaker: Dr Dorota Zarnowiecki, Flinders University and Dr Rebecca Byrne, Queensland University of Technology

Topic: Economic evaluation of early childhood obesity prevention interventions
Speaker: Anagha Killedar, University of Sydney

Topic: Translational research: Lessons learnt from two early obesity prevention initiatives
Speaker: Dr Penny Love, Deakin University

Topic: State and territory eclectic approaches to obesity prevention policy
Speaker: Emma Esdaile, University of Sydney