B-challenged: A multi-actor approach in creating safe and attractive physical and social environments to promote children’s active outdoor play and healthy dietary

Acronym : B-challenged

Call : HealthEquity 2023

Topic

BACKGROUND
Alarmingly, >80% of children do not meet public health guidelines for physical activity and dietary behaviour and thus have increased risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases. Today’s society is facing three major challenges to address this public health pandemic. The first challenge is the unequal distribution of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours and lifestyle-related NCDs among children at an early age and growing up under different socio-economic circumstances. The second challenge is that current interventions fail to address the complex mechanisms including multiple, reciprocally interacting influences and feedback loops that drive children’s unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. Finally, although active outdoor play is a major contributor to children’s physical activity, today’s children have limited access to safe and attractive outdoor play spaces and affordable after school activities; combined with an abundance of inexpensive energy-dense foods and sedentary screen activities.

AIM
B-challenged aims to tackle the complexity of equality in children’s active outdoor play and healthy dietary behaviours by co-creating, implementing and evaluating holistic interventions in the physical and social environmental together with children growing up in socio-economically underprivileged neighbourhoods and other key actors. 

APPROACH
B-challenged introduces a multi-actor, inter-sectorial democratic approach in four European countries, including children and other key actors (e.g. parents, teachers, policy makers). We will map the current situation using European cohort data, local monitoring data and perspectives of all key actors. Subsequently, B-challenged will actively collaboration with all key actors and take into account the broader system -e.g. neighbourhood, school, family- to deliver structural, relevant and feasible improvements in the physical and social environment promoting children’s active outdoor play and healthy dietary behaviours.

  • Coordinator:

    Teatske ALTENBURG, Stichting VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • Partners:
    • Charlotte PAWLOWSKI, University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Health Sciences, Odense M, Denmark
    • Montserrat LEÓN-LATRE, Fundación Instituto Investigación Sanitaria Aragón, Zaragoza, Spain
    • Anna DZIELSKA, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland
    • Wolfgang AHRENS, Leibniz Institute for Prevention and Epidemiology, Bremen, Germany
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