Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts:
A Plan for Measuring Progress

The history of successful public health progress in confronting and controlling complex
threats to population health has been marked most significantly by the ability and agreement to
conduct assessments of the outbreak, conduct surveillance of the movement of the threat over
time and between places and populations, and to conduct evaluations of efforts to interrupt or
control those threats. Effective evaluations have depended on the development of consensus on
the specific indicators and measures for comparisons in time and space and between jurisdictions
with their varied policies, programs, services, cultures, as well as distinct physical and social
environments. This report attempts to offer a degree of consensus on these essential ingredients
for successful monitoring and evaluation of progress on obesity in America.