Childhood Obesity Program Area

RWJF is committed to tackling one of the most urgent threats to the health of our children and families—childhood obesity. Our goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Child-Directed Marketing Within and Around Fast-Food Restaurants

December 1, 2013 | Issue Brief

The brief describes related policy implications and discusses current efforts by industry and advocates aimed at changing child-directed marketing practices by fast-food companies.

Neighborhood Perceptions and Active School Commuting in Low-Income Cities

October 1, 2013 | Journal Article

Improving neighborhood environments to make them more pleasant are likely to increse active travel to and from school.

Serving Healthy School Meals

September 1, 2013 | Report

This report presents findings about when school districts expect to be able to meet the updated nutrition standards for school meals, challenges they face in doing so, and how they are meeting those challenges.

Active Living Research

August 28, 2013 | Program Results Report

Active Living Research is an ongoing program to identify environmental factors and policies that can substantially increase levels of physical activity and to provide policy-makers with evidence about how to create more activity-friendly communities.

How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements

August 28, 2013 | Journal Article

Television ads for fast-food children's meals were compared with adult advertisements to assess companies' compliance with self-regulatory pledges.

Which Environmental and Policy Interventions Prevent Childhood Obesity?

August 28, 2013 | Program Results Report

Researchers developed a review system to assess the strength of evidence for policy and environmental intervention strategies to increase healthy eating and active living among children ages 3-18.

F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2013

August 16, 2013 | Report

Thirteen states now have adult obesity rates above 30 percent, 41 states have rates of at least 25 percent, and every state is above 20 percent, according to the report.

ChildObesity180: Reverse the Trend

August 9, 2013 | Program Results Report

ChildObesity180 brings together top leaders from the business, academic, government, and nonprofit sectors to make a measurable impact on child obesity within a generation.

Withholding Recess From Elementary School Students

August 1, 2013 | Journal Article

In this study, strong school district policy was associated with increased odds of not withholding students from recess for poor behavior or completing schoolwork.

Association Between State Physical Education (PE) Requirements and PE Participation, Physical Activity, and Body Mass Index Change

August 1, 2013 | Journal Article

State physical education laws with specific time requirements may increase attendance in physical education classes and overall physical activity particularly among girls.