The Spotlight Project
Project summary
The prevalence of overweight and obesity across Europe is high, with rates doubling during the last decades in several countries. SPOTLIGHT will systematically define the factors necessary for establishing effective health promotion approaches, taking into account varying contexts such as individual, family, organisational and environmental factors that can change behaviour, lifestyles and life skills that can sustainably reduce obesogenic behaviours.
The work is being done by a multidisciplinary consortium involving 13 organisations in eight European countries - Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom. World Obesity and EASO are responsible for one of the Work Packages and World Obesity is a member of two other Work Packages within the project.
SPOTLIGHT is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (CORDIS FP7) of the European Commission (FP7-HEALTH-2011).
General objective
SPOTLIGHT aims to speed up research in the area of obesity prevention with its focus on a wide range of obesogenic determinants, integrated prevention approaches, and factors to enhance adoption of such measures.
The core objective is to provide an evidence-based model for effective integrated intervention approaches in health promotion practice applicable across European regions.
The results will be translated into scientific publications as well as dissemination materials that are specifically designed for different interest groups and stakeholder categories. These materials will provide evidence-based as well as practice-based support, advice, suggestions and reference to best practices. Individual, team, and organizational levels involved in the process of development and implementation of successful multi-level intervention approaches will be addressed.
Specific objectives
- To identify the most consistent individual-level self-regulation predictors of long-term success in clinical and community behaviour change obesity interventions
- To provide an updated and extended overview of environmental determinants of overweight and obesity, focusing on their impact on dietary behaviour, physical activity and sedentary behaviour
- To develop and validate an innovative protocol for the assessment of the obesogenicity of the build environment using remote imaging in multiple settings
- To assess the actual environmental obesogenicity in selected neighbourhoods in four European Member States, and link this with health measures and behavioural characteristics of inhabitants of those neighbourhoods
- To create a cross-European obesogenicity database of selected environments
Specific Objectives
- To define the Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) of evidence-based multi-level intervention approaches to change lifestyle behaviours
- To identify determinants of successful adoption and implementation of multi-level intervention approaches in three different European member states
- To translate these findings to recommendations for successful adoption and implementation of effective public health/ health promotion strategies in the future
- To provide an evidence-based model for effective multi-level intervention approaches in health promotion practice applicable across European regions
- To facilitate dissemination and feedback among the main stakeholders, including stakeholders in research health promotion and policy-formation and interactive dissemination among the general public including schoolchildren and their families, mothers-to-be and older people