OPAL EVALUATION PROJECT FINAL REPORT OPAL PHASE 1 And 2

This Report summarises the key outcome data for the Flinders OPAL Evaluation Project. Findings are presented for all OPAL communities sampled in Phase 1 and 2 only. Baseline findings are compared to final data to assess the effectiveness of the 5 year OPAL program. Introduction Childhood overweight is a leading public health concern with at least 1 in 5 Australian children overweight or obese. As a response, the South Australian government committed to the OPAL intervention program, a multi-site, multi-setting, multi-strategy community based childhood obesity prevention program that operated in 20 communities. The aim of OPAL was to improve eating and physical activity patterns of South Australian children, through families and communities in OPAL regions and thereby increase the proportion of 0-18 year olds in the healthy weight range and improve their quality of life. To determine the effectiveness of this approach a comprehensive evaluation framework (including qualitative and quantitative methods) was developed. The data collected and compiled in this Report are the baseline and final data for Phase 1 and 2 of the quantitative evaluation and baseline and final qualitative evaluation, namely a community capacity building evaluation..