The CHOICES Learning Collaborative Partnership aims to build 
capacity among state and local decision-makers to choose and implement cost-effective obesity prevention strategies.
The CHOICES team is excited to announce that four local health agencies have been selected for a year-long collaboration: the Salt Lake County Health Department, the Houston Health Department, the Detroit Health Department, and the Allegheny County Health Department. Each agency will apply cost-effectiveness analysis to assess obesity prevention strategies that are of high interest to local partners and decision-makers in their communities.
Reducing childhood obesity rates in the U.S. will require well-implemented, cost-effective strategies with clear evidence for beneficial impact on health across multiple sectors at national, state, and local levels. Preventive strategies are critical, as we cannot treat our way out of the obesity epidemic. Through the CHOICES Learning Collaborative Partnership (LCP), the CHOICES team provides training and technical assistance to state and local health agencies to understand and use cost-effectiveness information about feasible and scalable strategies to ensure all children grow up healthy.
The four health agencies selected comprise the fourth year of CHOICES Learning Collaborative Partnerships, which includes partnerships with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC), to support the health agencies involved. During the first year of the CHOICES LCP, CHOICES partnered with health agencies in three states—Washington state, West Virginia, and Mississippi. During its second year of collaborations, CHOICES partnered with health agencies in three states — Alaska, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire — as well as one local health agency: Philadelphia. During the third year of collaborations, CHOICES partnered with two state health agencies – Hawaii and Minnesota — and two local health agencies — Denver and San Antonio.
The CHOICES team will provide a series of collaborative sessions hosted by CHOICES in partnership with ASTHO and NACCHO that will give decision-makers the training and tools necessary to apply cost-effectiveness analysis to interventions of their choice. Along with identifying or collecting data relevant to these interventions, the health agencies will also share tools, resources and best practices with local partners throughout the process. The CHOICES team provides technical assistance in evaluating each intervention’s effectiveness, implementation cost, cost-effectiveness, and impact on obesity rates, population health, and health disparities.
Though the strategies analyzed and developed may differ from place to place, the partners share the common goal of ensuring more children have healthier years ahead by investing in cost-effective obesity interventions. The partnership aims to build each site’s capacity to apply CHOICES Project tools and processes—both now and in the future—to inform decision-making, strategic planning and tactical intervention implementation.