A quasi-experimental repeat cross-section evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle) Program at increasing healthy weight in children (9-11 years).

The OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle) Program is delivered in 20 communities across South Australia for a period of 4.75 - 5 years. OPAL aims to increase healthy weight in children 0-18 years and their families through community by increasing healthy eating and physical activity. Two SA health staff (a senior strategic position and a graduate project support position whose backgrounds varied and included Nutrition & Dietetics, Sport & recreation, Health Promotion, Nursing, Social Work) were based in local government to bring about changes at the individual, community and environment levels through a series of projects designed to meet local need. The program while delivering evidence-based social marketing behaviour change messages each year, provided a suite of locally relevant projects targeting the following goal areas: home meals, food outlets, local food production and active travel, active leisure and use of parks and places. OPAL staff have reported delivering more than 2,440 local projects across the first 10 communities (range of n=35 to 531 projects in each community). These projects are recorded in an online project management system. The projects vary from installing drinking water fountains and play equipment within the local playground to, delivery of nutrition programs within a local primary school to a mail-out of OPAL social marketing theme-related pamphlets to all residents within the council area. These projects are too diverse and too numerous to describe here as is the nature of systems-wide, community-level interventions. OPAL was a systems-wide approach targeting multiple sectors and settings across the community including the following sectors: education and training, planning, sports and recreation, transport, arts and culture, community development, media, health, business and commercial, tourism, environment and conservation. This includes a range of individualised settings based upon the community such as pre, primary and high schools, local butcher and businesses to local library and non-government organisations. Intervention fidelity (program integrity and local adaptations) was the subject of a separate study: Zoe Richards; Iordan Kostadinov; Michelle Jones; Lucie Richard; Margaret Cargo. (2014) Assessing Implementation Fidelity and Adaptation in a community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention Health Education Research September 2014 doi: 10.1093/her/cyu053