Development of a childhood obesity prevention programme with a focus on UK South Asian communities

Objective: We report the development of a childhood obesity prevention intervention for UK South Asian primary school-aged children, guided by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for complex intervention development and evaluation.

Methods: We combined information gained from a literature review, stakeholder focus groups, an expert group, review of local resources and mapping to the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO framework) in an intervention development process. The study took place in 2007 in Birmingham, UK.

Results: Contextual information from the stakeholder focus groups was essential for informing intervention development. The expert group defined guiding principles for the intervention. Informing intervention design by assessing existing local resources addressed intervention sustainability. The use of the ANGELO framework ensured a comprehensive environmental approach to intervention development. The intervention consisted of two broad processes; increasing children's physical activity levels through school, and increasing skills of families through activity-based learning. The developed intervention is being evaluated in a major study.

Conclusions: The intervention development process has resulted in a tailored intervention programme to prevent childhood obesity in UK South Asian communities, but also intervention processes that could be applied to other communities and tailored to local context.