Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The mission of the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health is to work with community partners to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate cost-effective strategies that will improve population nutrition and physical activity, prevent excess weight gain and chronic disease, and advance health equity. The current proposal will address significant gaps in translating evidence-based healthful eating and physical activity interventions into practice and key health promotion and disease prevention objectives in Healthy People 2030. These gaps represent critical needs noted by our local health agencies and partners. Our implementation research project focuses on improving healthful eating and physical activity behaviors (HEPA) among children (0-5 years) in early childhood education (ECE) settings. Our proposed center and collaborative implementation research represent opportunities to improve child health in Massachusetts, prevent future disease, improve health equity, and disseminate results statewide and nationally. Our Aims are to: Establish and maintain the Prevention Research Center infrastructure and partnerships needed to conduct applied prevention research to improve nutrition and physical activity behaviors, prevent chronic disease, and improve health equity via sustainable policy, systems, and environmental changes; 2) Identify and deliver equity-centered adaptations for an evidence-based intervention (EBI) focused on promoting HEPA for child care settings serving 0-5 year-olds to improve its uptake, impact, and sustainability in under-resourced settings using implementation science methods in collaboration with local health agency and community partners; and 3) Collaborate with the PRC network to implement a collective impact approach to leverage PRC network members' expertise, partnerships, and leadership to advance health-equity focused public health prevention research. We will engage with community partners to develop, communicate, and disseminate products and knowledge from our research and build community capacity with partners to foster uptake and sustainability. Completing these actions will increase our capacity to bridge the gap between public health research and practice, creating knowledge to improve health and reduce health inequities.