Tim Lobstein on our SPOTLIGHT project analysis of community-based interventions

This week Dr. Tim Lobstein, director of policy at the World Obesity Federation, wrote a British Medical Journal Blog based on our analyses within the study into obesity and obesogenic environments, a cross-European collaboration (SPOTLIGHT) of community-based interventions for obesity prevention.

Lobstein focusses on the importance of evaluating community-based interventions on Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) to learn from such projects for future endeavours, and to avoid that such projects are being “top-down” by ensuring that all participants (beneficiaries, staff, funders) are involved in the planning process when the project is first mooted. Finally, Lobstein stresses that haste is a waste where community based obesity prevention projects are concerned: "Lastly, complex community-based interventions can experience tensions between delivering a high-quality, effective project in a short period of time on the one side, and achieving engagement in the community and its organisations and leaders on the other. "