A new paper led by EPOCH-Translate CRE health economics team showed that a whole of community early childhood obesity prevention intervention (Romp & Chomp) has the potential of being cost-effective if delivered at scale.

Very few obesity prevention interventions in early childhood were effective in reducing body mass index and also included economic evaluation.  Romp & Chomp was a community-wide obesity prevention intervention conducted in Geelong, Victoria targeted at children aged 5 and under.  The study estimated the cost-effectiveness of Romp & Chomp assuming it was hypothetically scaled up nationally compared to no intervention.

The study found a 64% probability of the Romp & Chomp being cost-effective, and should be considered as part of a package of interventions aiming at reducing childhood obesity.  Read the full article here.

Reference: Tran, H., Killedar, A., Tan, E. J., Moodie, M., Hayes, A., Swinburn, B., Nichols, M., & Brown, V. (2022). Cost-effectiveness of scaling up a whole-of-community intervention: The Romp & Chomp early childhood obesity prevention intervention. Pediatric obesity, e12915. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12915