What accounts for good practice? Assessment of obesity prevention projects for kindergarten children in Germany

Abstract

Objective: Up to now, no guideline has been set up that provides criteria for good practice in universal and selective childhood obesity prevention projects for children aged 3 to 6 in the kindergarten setting. Hence, based on guidelines for targeted prevention, the present study not only aims at assessing the current state of German universal and selective childhood obesity prevention projects in kindergartens, but also at deriving criteria of good practice in order to help fill this gap. Methods: An assessment of German childhood obesity prevention projects in the kindergarten setting was carried out by investigating prevention projects. Results: We identified 78 projects. It was not possible to find adequate information on all derived criteria at hand. We assessed the documentation in the databases as rather insufficient and fragmentary. Based on the documented data and the additional telephone inquiry, the identification of good practice projects seems rather difficult. Conclusion: The derived criteria are helpful to access universal and selective childhood obesity projects, but in the future the documentation in the databases needs to be augmented in order to increase project transparency and comparability.