Childhood Obesity Modeling for Prevention and Community Transformation (COMPACT): Developing and Applying Complex Systems Models to Obesity Prevention

Abstract.  COMPACT is a groundbreaking five-year international collaboration to apply the principles of complex systems science to community-based childhood obesity interventions. COMPACT is funded by a National Institutes of Health grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Office for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Childhood obesity and overweight are complex problems with many causes. Although there have been many thoughtful interventions designed to address these causes, relatively few have shown lasting effects. Complex systems science can help researchers identify the factors that lead to the effective implementation of childhood obesity interventions.  The overall goal of COMPACT is to identify what works, for whom and under what circumstances.  Researchers are using agent-based models (ABM) to learn from successful completed obesity interventions in several countries. In an iterative process, we are testing, refining, and calibrating these models, using data drawn from ongoing intervention studies, and will then use the improved model and insights from this set of studies to design and conduct a new pilot intervention.