Abstract

Healthcare professionals are challenged with reversing the current childhood obesity epidemic as well as preventing its occurrence among future generations. This paper describes a community-academic partnership that implemented clinical guidelines in a medically underserved elementary school in Alabama. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, pretests, posttests, health screenings, and surveys were used to establish a screening and prevention program and to create a collaboration between a rural county school system and a local school of nursing university. Outcomes indicate this evidence-based, multi-pronged approach may accelerate the progress toward the prevention of childhood obesity.