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Romp & Chomp

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The Romp & Chomp intervention aimed to promote and achieve healthy weight outcomes in children less than 5 years of age, through healthy eating and physical activity. The program emphasizes the importance of teaching people about healthy lifestyle choices and behavior at a very young age so that these behaviors can be adopted and applied throughout the life course.

The eight essential components of Romp & Chomp are described within the framework of the program objectives:
1. Increase the capacity of relevant organizations to promote healthy eating and active play;
2. Increase the awareness of the project's key messages in homes and early childhood settings;
3. Evaluate the process, impact and outcomes of the project;
4. Significantly decrease consumption of high sugar drinks and promote consumption of water and milk;
5. Significantly decrease consumption of energy dense snacks and increase consumption of fruit and vegetables;
6. Significantly increase active play at home and decrease TV viewing time;
7. Increase structured active play in kindergarten and childcare settings;
8. Achieve an integrated population growth-monitoring program within Maternal and Child Health.

Goal / Mission

The goal of Romp & Chomp is to increase healthy eating and physical activity in order to reduce overweight and obesity in children less than 5 years of age.

Impact

The Romp & Chomp program was a multistrategy and multisetting community based intervention designed to reduce childhood obesity by encouraging healthy eating and active play. The program results have shown that Romp & Chomp, working alongside other health promotion programs, was successful in reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity.

Results / Accomplishments

Between 2004 and 2008, an evaluation of Romp & Chomp took place in the Geelong community of Victoria, Australia. The multilevel evaluation incorporated anthropometric outcome measures and environmental measures in early-childhood settings, and included a control group that did not participate in the Romp & Chomp program for comparison. The study used questionnaire data collected from Long Day Care centers, Family Day Care centers, and kindergartens. The study also used data from Maternal Child Health "key ages and stages" health checks at 2 and 3.5 years of age.

The anthropometric data demonstrated that prevalence of overweight/obesity in the 2 year-old intervention sample was 2.5 percentage points lower than the baseline intervention sample. Prevalence of overweight/obesity in 3.5 year-old intervention sample at follow-up was 3.4 percentage points lower than the baseline sample. In contrast, only a 0.7 percentage point difference was observed between the baseline and follow-up in the comparison sample.

The results also indicated significant changes in obesity-related behaviors. The intervention group significantly increased their intake of vegetables, fruit, water, and plain milk, while significantly decreasing their consumption of fruit juice and cordial.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Deakin University, Australia and the Victoria Department of Health
Primary Contact
Andrea Sanigorski
Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program,
Melbourne School of Population Health,
The University of Melbourne,
Carlton, Australia
andreams@unimelb.edu.au
Topics
Health / Children's Health
Health / Physical Activity
Organization(s)
Deakin University, Australia and the Victoria Department of Health
Source
World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Obesity Prevention
Date of publication
2009
Date of implementation
2004
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
Australia
For more details
Target Audience
Children, Families
Submitted By
Ana J. Reyna, Marissa Silverman, Ivy Xin - UC Berkeley School of Public Health

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