Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: EPODE is a coordinated, capacity-building methodology for communities to implement effective and sustainable strategies to prevent childhood obesity. Since 2008, the EPODE European Network (EEN), supported by the European Commission (DG SANCO), is aimed at facilitating the implementation of interventions using the EPODE methodology in other regions and countries.

Methodology: From 2008 to 2011, four committees – gathering universities and experts from different fields – have documented and conceptualized EPODE practices. This has been done through broad literature screening, 75 interviews and 20 committee meetings gathering more than 100 multidisciplinary contributions.

Results: Research results highlight: – The leading role of local authorities to initiate, lead, catalyse, federate and fund targeted and multisectoral actions, with the support of municipal services and local stakeholders;

– The importance of a tight collaboration between central and local coordination structures in order to develop relevant, concrete and tailored actions, addressing real life conditions;

– The interest of public-private partnerships to support actions on a long-term within the framework of a transparent governance and clear rights and obligations for all partners;

– The need of a multidisciplinary and significant evaluation (10–15% of total budget), adapted to the field and not only focusing on obesity prevalence but also on the process of actions.

Conclusion: Since the beginning of EEN, the use of EPODE methodology has been scaled up and is considered to be the largest global obesity prevention initiative at community level. EPODE is used in more than 8 countries, 500 cities and early evaluation suggests encouraging results.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.