Adapting CDC’s 24 Obesity-prevention Strategies for Youth with Disabilities
www.24acorns.org

Please help to spread the word! Direct anyone you know who may have experience or expertise on how to adapt programs for persons with disabilities to www.24acorns.org. Using the website portal you can submit suggestions for physical, cognitive, or cultural adaptations to any of CDC’s 24 obesity-prevention strategies.

Approximately one fifth of U.S. children are obese or overweight. Reversing the U.S. obesity epidemic requires a comprehensive approach that uses policy and environmental change to transform communities into places that promote healthy lifestyle choices for all. To help communities, the CDC initiated the Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention Project to identify a set of strategies that communities and local governments can use for obesity prevention. The 24 strategies created using the expert panel process are divided into six categories: 1) strategies to promote the availability of affordable healthy food and beverages, 2) strategies to support healthy food and beverage choices, 3) a strategy to encourage breastfeeding, 4) strategies to encourage physical activity or limit sedentary activity among children and youth, 5) strategies to create safe communities that support physical activity, and 6) a strategy to encourage communities to organize for change.

The strategies for the prevention or reduction of obesity have been developed from an evidence-base of research that typically excludes participation by people with disabilities. Our “Adaptations to Community-based Obesity Reducing National Strategies” (ACORNS) website is part of a grant funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to promote more inclusive community-based obesity prevention programs that represent the needs of youth and young adults with disabilities. The obesity-prevention strategy adaptation portal, www.24acorns.org, was created so that persons with disabilities, teachers, clinicians, researchers, policy makers, and more could have a place to contribute their input on how to best adapt the CDC’s obesity-prevention strategies to be inclusive.

To learn more about our entire project, visit http://uic-chp.org/CHP_A6B_DRRP2_01.html.

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