The Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention (APCCP): An Innovative Community-University Partnership to Address Obesity and Chronic Diseases through Policy Kim D. Raine PhD, RD, FCAHS Candace I.J. Nykiforuk, PhD, CE

Context: POWER and PLACE Research Programs UofA SPH Promoting Optimal Weights through Ecological Research Policy Location and Access in Community Environments For over a decade, we have been working collaboratively with practitioners, policy-makers and community organizations to enhance capacity and to develop population-based interventions for the promotion of healthy weights and prevention of chronic diseases.

5 year intervention for obesity and CDP (2005-10) ANGELO (Swinburn et al) Raine, K.D., et al., Healthy Alberta Communities: Impact of a three-year community-based obesity and chronic disease prevention intervention, Prev. Med. Volume 57, Issue 6, December 2013, Pages 955–962. Raine, K.D., et al. Reflections on community-based population health intervention and evaluation for obesity and chronic disease prevention: the Healthy Alberta Communities project. International Journal of Public Health. 2010, 55(6)679-686.

Biggest Impact: Partnerships and Capacity Community partnerships influenced local citizens and broad-level action influencing entire communities Self-reported well-being outcomes showed improvement in comparison to secular trends, but impact on behaviour change, BMI/ overweight/ obesity not evident (yet) The need to address broader policy issues were acknowledged as boundaries placed on community-level social change need for adequate income support to promote food security need to develop policies to create a built environment supportive of active transportation

www.abpolicycoalitionforprevention.ca Applying lessons from tobacco control to physical activity and nutrition Built on models from Australia and Quebec Funded 2009-11 by ACPLF as a Population Health Innovative Intervention Ongoing funding from HSF

The Who We Are 17 member organizations (HSF, CCS, DC, CDA, AHS, ACAL, EAS, APRA, APHA…) Coordinate efforts, generate evidence, and advocate for policy change to reduce chronic disease risk concentrate efforts primarily on policies which affect schools, workplaces, communities and municipalities Premise: investment in macro-level environmental changes via policy development will create opportunities for healthy living among the general population that will lead to improved population level risk profiles. The Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention is a Coalition of 17 organizations who have come together to coordinate efforts, generate evidence and advocate for policy to reduce chronic disease risk in Alberta. Housed within the University of Alberta, School of Public Health.

Began with: Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Survey Chronic Disease Prevention Survey 2014 Provincial Government Municipal Government School Boards Print Media Companies Workplaces >500 Employees

Objectives: Identify readiness for policy change among key policy- influencers (what to target) Identify influence of advocacy (comparison to control province) Monitor trends in appetite for policy change over time

“Appetite” for change and priorities for obesity prevention Obesity (2014) 22(11), 2426-2433. doi:10.1002/oby.20860

Restrictive Environmental Policy Approaches

Journal of Public Health Policy, Proposed: A national regulatory system prohibiting commercial marketing of foods and beverages to children Journal of Public Health Policy, 43(2) 239-253, 2013 doi:10.1057/jphp.2013.9 Stop M2K Coalition: Health organizations tell food industry: pick on someone your own age

Restrictive Environmental Policy Approaches in Alberta (2009-2014)

Collaborative Interventions to Influence Policy Implementation Eat, Play, Live!

The Policy Readiness Tool The Policy Readiness Tool is an evidence-based tool to help foster healthy public policy. Intent is to make participating in policy change more accessible to non-experts and experts. e.g., policy developers, advocates, community organizations, non-profit sector staff and volunteers, government employees, community members Simple to use and not restricted to health policies Available in English and French Developed by Dr. Candace Nykiforuk, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, in partnership with the APCCP. A project of POWER UP! for 2013-2016. The Policy Readiness Tool is an evidence-based tool to help foster healthy public policy. The intent of the tool is to make participating in policy change more accessible to both experts and non-experts. The tool was developed by Dr. Candace Nykiforuk in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta in partnership with the APCCP. It is currently a project of POWER UP! WWW.POWERUPFORHEALTH.CA | POWERUPFORHEALTH-FR.CA

The Policy Readiness Tool The Policy Readiness Tool Website: www.policyreadinesstool.com Also available via POWER UP! www.powerupforhealth.ca One of the tools available on the POWER UP! website is the Policy Readiness Tool, which is designed to assess a municipality or organization’s readiness for policy change. WWW.POWERUPFORHEALTH.CA | POWERUPFORHEALTH-FR.CA

The Policy Readiness Tool 3. Provides targeted, evidence-based policy change strategies for taking action at each level of readiness. Once you know the readiness category of your municipality, the PRT provides targeted, evidence-based policy change strategies for taking action at each level of readiness. For example, strategies to use with innovators involves framing the issue to appeal to the innovative spirit and building relationships with key champions. WWW.POWERUPFORHEALTH.CA | POWERUPFORHEALTH-FR.CA

Benchmarking Develop an Annual Policy Report Card on Food Environments and Nutrition to: Provide an assessment of how current environments and policies support or create barriers to improving children’s dietary behaviours and body weights Increase awareness of the public, practitioners and policy makers of the relevance of food environments for health promotion and obesity prevention

Report Card on Healthy Food Environments and Nutrition for Children and Youth On January 5th, 2016 Alberta’s Report Card was released. We produced a full report that details all 41 indicators and grades and a summary report which provides key findings and 16 category grades (averaged indicator grades within each category) WWW.POWERUPFORHEALTH.CA | POWERUPFORHEALTH-FR.CA

Lessons Learned Focusing on creating public health capacity and environmental conditions supportive of changes is necessary to build a foundation for changes in behaviour and health outcomes The combination of innovative interventions (advocacy, policy implementation and assessment tools) and research methods have moved the field of environmental and policy intervention for obesity prevention ahead, but there is still much work to do!

Thank you! (HAC) (HAC) Health and Wellness 21