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HPRC Quarterly Highlights: Q3 2024

Staff Writer

September 30, 2024

Below we highlight our accomplishments from Q3, categorized within the four aims in which our Center is focused. Learn more about our Center aims here.

Collaborate with Partners to Identify Evidence-Based Interventions

Examining the Cost-Effectiveness and Health & Health Equity Impacts of a Sugary Drink Excise Tax in Massachusetts
This quarter, the CHOICES team was excited to publish two new reports on the CHOICES website, which detail findings from modeling a sugary drink excise tax in Massachusetts and analyze the impact on both the state as a whole and on the Boston population.

CHOICES cost-effectiveness analysis compared the costs and outcomes of implementing this tax with the costs and outcomes expected if the tax were not implemented over 10 years (2023-2032). This tax on distributors is projected to be cost-saving, decrease sugary drink consumption, prevent over 62,000 of cases of obesity statewide, and save $937 million in health care costs statewide. It is also projected that Black and Hispanic/Latinx Massachusetts residents will experience a greater than average reduction in obesity levels after the tax is implemented, leading to improved health equity.

The CHOICES Community of Practice also hosted a coffee chat on Thursday, September 26^th focused on the progressive health and health equity impacts of a sugary drink excise tax, highlighting recent findings from modeling a statewide tax in Massachusetts. We had two wonderful guest speakers who both shared important insight: Sara Bleich, Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and inaugural Vice Provost for Special Projects at Harvard University and Steve Gortmaker, Professor of the Practice of Health Sociology, Director of the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity, and Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the CHOICES Project at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

This coffee chat was part of our monthly CHOICES Community of Practice coffee chat series, which is for any public health professional whose work focuses on advancing obesity prevention, healthy eating, and active living and want to learn more about how cost-effectiveness analysis can advance their efforts and address health equity.

Read the Massachusetts report | Read the Boston, MA report | Watch the coffee chat recording

Promote Healthy Weight, Nutrition, Physical Activity, & Health Equity

New Peer-Reviewed Publication Assesses the Cost-Effectiveness of a Program to Promote Healthy Weight Among Children at Community Health Centers
This study, published in September in Obesity (Silver Spring), assessed the cost-effectiveness of a Healthy Weight Clinic program aimed at helping children between the ages of 6 and 12 with overweight or obesity at community health centers. Over 10 years, the program could reach 888,000 children, improve health outcomes, and save an estimated $14.6 million in health care costs – with a relatively low cost per child. This program could also reduce obesity among Hispanic/Latino and Black children, potentially improving health equity. Overall, the program was found to be both cost-effective and effective in promoting healthy child weight.

Read the paper:
Cost-effectiveness of a primary care-based Healthy Weight Clinic compared with usual care. (Sharifi M, Fiechtner LG, Barrett JL, O’Connor G, Perkins M, Reiner JF, Luo M, Taveras EM, Gortmaker SL, Obesity, September 2024)

Offer Resources & Training Opportunities

New Resources
We are always working to share new resources, tools, and peer-reviewed publications that align with our Center’s Priority Areas. This quarter, we published and launched the following:

CHOICES Sugary Drink Excise Tax Reports: Massachusetts & Boston, MA
CHOICES cost-effectiveness analysis compared the costs and outcomes of implementing a sugary drink excise tax on sugary drink distributors with the costs and outcomes expected if the tax were not implemented over 10 years (2023-2032). Read the Massachusetts report | Read the Boston, MA report

Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP) Initiative: Refreshed Resources, Better Support for OST Providers
The HPRC team recently updated the OSNAP website and associated materials and resources to better reflect today’s best practices and guidelines for nutrition and physical activity. Updated for both content and design, these resources are designed to help afterschool programs thrive and assist afterschool providers in offering children opportunities to be physically active and eat healthy during afterschool time. Explore the OSNAP site | Browse the OSNAP resource library | Create a free MyOSNAP account

Other Key New Resources

Cost-effectiveness of a primary care-based Healthy Weight Clinic compared with usual care. (Sharifi M, Fiechtner LG, Barrett JL, O’Connor G, Perkins M, Reiner JF, Luo M, Taveras EM, Gortmaker SL, Obesity, September 2024) | Peer-Reviewed Publications
Strategy Profile: Increased Access to Adolescent Bariatric Surgery | Tools & Guides

Build Capacity for Conducting Community-Engaged Research

2024 Leaders in Health Cohort & Lively Reunion!
The Leaders in Health (LIH) program strengthens community health initiatives through introductory training in public health research and science. The goal of LIH is to build the capacity of our community partners by providing participants with an introduction to the fundamentals of community-based participatory research, program planning, and evaluation. We’re excited to announce our 2024 cohort members!

Vanessa Calixto, Regional Environmental Council of Central MA
Norah Ismail, Cambridge Public Health Department
Staci Jasin, COGDesign
Collin Knight, Live Like a Local Tours
Zachary McCullouch, Roxbury Tenants of Harvard
Stephanie Mesa, UMass Memorial Medical School
Melvin Morales, Holyoke Community Health Center
Kasey Owen, Cambridge Cambridge Public Health Department
Laila Pearson, The American City Coalition
Emily Shenk, Boston Public Health Commission
Emily Sinsky, Boston Office of Food Justice
Yuqi Wang, Boston Office of Human Services
Derrick Winbush, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless

In addition, participants from past LIH cohorts gathered on September 19^th at Nubian Markets in Boston for a reunion – a great time was had by all! Over 20 participants represented those from past cohorts from 2017 – 2023 as well as the current 2024 participants and students. Thanks to all who came, and see some highlights below!