Comparing 2 National Organization-Level Workplace Health Promotion and Improvement Tools, 2013-2015.

Creating healthy workplaces is becoming more common. Half of employers that have more than 50 employees offer some type of workplace health promotion program. Few employers implement comprehensive evidence-based interventions that reach all employees and achieve desired health and cost outcomes. A few organization-level assessment and benchmarking tools have emerged to help employers evaluate the comprehensiveness and rigor of their health promotion offerings. Even fewer tools exist that combine assessment with technical assistance and guidance to implement evidence-based practices. Our descriptive analysis compares 2 such tools, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Worksite Health ScoreCard and Prevention Partners' WorkHealthy America, and presents data from both to describe workplace health promotion practices across the United States. These tools are reaching employers of all types (N = 1,797), and many employers are using a comprehensive approach (85% of those using WorkHealthy America and 45% of those using the ScoreCard), increasing program effectiveness and impact.

An intervention to promote healthy weight: Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) theory and design.

Health professionals are faced with the growing challenge of addressing childhood overweight. Few overweight prevention efforts have targeted young children, particularly children in child care settings. We describe the theory and development of a novel nutrition and physical activity environmental intervention. On the basis of findings from interviews and focus groups, a review of national recommendations and standards, and a review of the literature, we developed a nutrition and physical activity environmental self-assessment instrument to assess physical activity and nutrition policies and practices in child care settings. An intervention model was built around existing public health infrastructure to support use of the self-assessment instrument and encourage environmental changes at the child care level, and this intervention model became the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) program. The NAP SACC program was designed for dissemination and has potential for implementation in many settings. Broad interest in NAP SACC has been expressed by a number of states and institutions, and many groups are using NAP SACC intervention and materials. The NAP SACC program shows promise as a useful approach to promoting healthy weight behaviors in child care settings.

Policy tools for the childhood obesity epidemic.

The rapid increases in childhood and adolescent overweight between 1980 and 1999 can only be explained by environmental factors. Historically, the most effective strategies to address nutritional problems that have caused such widespread disease have been policy-driven environmental changes. To develop effective public policy responses to the obesity epidemic, we must expand the science base linking environmental conditions and policies to health behaviors and conditions; establish effective intersectoral coalitions of stakeholders; and create effective policy at the national and state levels. Although the childhood obesity epidemic is still evolving, this article provides several examples of potentially effective strategic approaches to address it.