# Parks & Pediatrics Fit Together: Translating knowledge into action for child obesity treatment in partnership with Parks and Recreation

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $665,037

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Evidence-based treatment for childhood obesity exists, yet a fundamental knowledge-to-action gap has
significantly limited the uptake of recommendations into clinical practice, particularly in low-income settings.
Persistence of this gap represents a large-scale public health threat, as the earliest generation of children living
through the obesity epidemic now enters adulthood, they are the first in US history to have a shorter life
expectancy than their parents, mainly due to rising rates of obesity-related cancers and cardiovascular
disease. A central challenge in delivering recommended treatment is the intensity; ≥26 hours of face-to-face
contact are necessary to achieve health benefits and risk reduction. The long-term goal is to close the
knowledge-to-action gap by disseminating effective implementation tools that will deliver the current child
obesity treatment recommendations in diverse community settings. The objective of the proposed project is to
develop and test an implementation strategy that pairs primary care pediatric clinics with municipal Parks and
Recreation (P&R) centers to deliver the current treatment recommendations with high fidelity, while allowing
crucial adaptations for the local and cultural context. The central hypothesis is that effective pediatric obesity
treatment is possible to achieve, but only with strong implementation supports to ensure fidelity to evidence-
based recommendations and adaptability to local resource constraints and population needs. Guided by strong
preliminary data on effectiveness and implementation feasibility, this hypothesis will be tested through three
specific aims: 1) Develop a web-based platform that will support the implementation and broad dissemination
of the shared clinic-P&R model in low-resource settings; 2) Evaluate the implementation platform using an
interrupted time series design anchored in the Process Redesign Framework and reporting qualitative and
quantitative measures of provider and organizational characteristics, implementation process and outcomes,
child outcomes, and caregiver outcomes; and 3) Design a dissemination and sustainability strategy, using the
PCORI Dissemination Framework, that considers relevant factors including community resources, funding
stability, organizational capacity, partnership development, program requirements, and sustainability. The
approach is innovative because it is a strong example of value-based care, a new horizon for alternative
payment models in the current environment of health care reform. The proposed research is significant,
because it will deliver implementation tools into the hands of front-line pediatric health care providers and over
33,000 park and recreation centers nationally. If successful, the expected outcomes will dramatically improve
access to effective treatment in diverse communities, and deliver on the existing recommendations for millions
of children with obesity in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10242013
- **Project number:** 5R01HD100417-02
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah C Armstrong
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $665,037
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-19 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10242013

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10242013, Parks & Pediatrics Fit Together: Translating knowledge into action for child obesity treatment in partnership with Parks and Recreation (5R01HD100417-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10242013. Licensed CC0.

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