Healthy Children Task Force
The Healthy Children Task Force (HCTF) is a community coalition in Cambridge. It was formed in 1990 to address children’s health issues in the city of Cambridge. Through enhanced collaboration between various agencies and institutions in the Cambridge area, the HCTF has facilitated the development and evaluation of programs over the years to tackle health problems in the city. Some of these initiatives include dental health screening in schools and preventive mental health initiatives. One of the most notable programs of HCTF is the Healthy Living Cambridge Kids initiative.
The Health Living Cambridge Kids initiative is a comprehensive school and community-based approach aimed at reducing childhood obesity in Cambridge. It is composed of many programmatic components including the 5-2-1 campaign. The 5-2-1 campaign provides simple guidelines for promoting healthy weight among Cambridge children:
- 5 or more fruits and vegetables daily
- 2 hours or less of TV watching daily
- 1 hour or more of physical activity daily
Research and evaluation of Healthy Living Cambridge Kids has shown the initiative to be an effective tool in promoting healthy weight among Cambridge school children. Some of the key findings from data collected among K-8th grade students from 2004 to 2007 are shown below.
- Percentage of obese students decreased by 3.6% (from 20.8% to 17.2%); and the percentage of overweight students decreased by 1.7 % (from 18.3% to 16.6%)
- Percentage of students categorized as having a healthy weight increased by 5.0% (from 59.2% to 64.2 %)
- Percentage of students who passed all their fitness tests increased by 10.6% (From 28.4% to 39.0%)
The success of the HCTF in tackling local problems has been disseminated through local and national media. It has also been disseminated in the city’s health report, as well as in scientific journals. HCTF and Healthy Living Cambridge Kids were honored with the US Health and Human Services Innovation in Prevention Award in 2007 for best school-based health initiative. Policy changes and programmatic components initiated by the HCTF have been adapted for use by various organizations. For example, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has adopted the 5-2-1 guidelines and has expanded its use since its inception in the early 1990’s.
