Tag: Community

OVER TWO-THIRDS of adults in the United States (US) are overweight or obese, with 39.8% classified as obese in 2015-2016 and significant disparities by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity.^1–3Nutrition-focused public health efforts to address the obesity epidemic are wide-ranging, but typically focus on increasing access to healthy foods in a range of settings from farmers’ markets to corner stores.^4–10 The home environment, while present in ecologic models of obesity, is rarely the target of interventions, particularly for adult obesity or weight gain prevention.^11–14 From both theoretical and practical perspectives, home environments may be particularly influential in weight-related behaviors. Social and physical cues can support either healthy or unhealthy eating behaviors.^15–17 And, importantly, a significant amount of time is spent at home, and the majority of calories are consumed at home.^18–20

Interventions that target the home food environment are typically focused on childhood obesity prevention,^21–28 although a few weight-loss interventions have targeted adult home food environments.^29,30 Others have used a “small change” approach, which targets simple actions, some of which focus on the home environment (eg, hide snacks in inconvenient place and turn off TV during meals) that participants can take to facilitate healthy eating and lower energy intake.^31–33 Healthy Homes/Healthy Families (HH/HF), developed by our team through community-based participatory research,^34,35 is one of only a few interventions targeting home food environments for adults and focused on dietary outcomes and weight gain prevention rather