The development of a network for community-based obesity prevention: the CO-OPS Collaboration

Key activities of the collaboration to date have included the development of a set of Best Practice Principles and knowledge translation and exchange activities to promote the application (or use) of evidence, evaluation and analysis in practice.The establishment of the CO-OPS Collaboration is a significant step toward strengthening action in this area, by bringing together research, practice and policy expertise to promote best practice, high quality evaluation and knowledge translation and exchange. Future development of the network should include facilitation of further evidence generation and translation drawing from process, impact and outcome evaluation of existing community-based interventions.The lessons presented in this paper may help other networks like CO-OPS as they emerge around the globe. It is important that networks integrate with each other and share the experience of creating these networks.Overweight and obesity is one of the major threats to the health of Australians, as it affects a significant proportion of the population (about 60% of adults and 25% of children) and is a key risk factor in the development of chronic diseases such as type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and many cancers [1]]. Obesity prevalence has risen rapidly in recent decades and also disproportionately affects people from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds [2-7].The behavioural patterns contributing to high rates of obesity include increased consumption of high energy density foods and beverages, low consumption of fruit and vegetables and a shift to less active transport and more sedentary leisure time activities [8-10]. Obesity develops in a social and environmental context in which facilities, policies, economic factors and socio-cultural influences promote these behaviours [11,12]. Thus, it is likely that education and treatment approaches alone will not be sufficient to reverse the obesity epidemic or its socio-economic gradient [13].A number of