Overview of the CRITCO study
CHILDHOOD OBESITY
The CRITCO was a multilevel, multisector, theory-based study with an advisory committee comprised of two community nutritionists, a sociologist, a health education and promotion specialist, and a pediatrician. The overall aim of the study was to improve the readiness of targeted local communities of diverse socioeconomic districts of Tehran for engaging in childhood obesity prevention programs in primary school children grade fourth to sixth (10–12 years of age). Accordingly, the specific objectives were developed around the six dimensions of CRM to promote community knowledge about the existing preventive efforts and childhood obesity issues, leaders’ support, community partnership, and resource allocation to address childhood obesity. The CRITCO study was launched and implemented over two years (August 2018 to August 2020) in five distinct phases, where each phase developed based on the findings of the previous phases:The first two phases developed a validated socio-culturally adapted Persian version of the community readiness tool (CRT). Subsequently, a cross-sectional study determined the readiness of 12 local communities from two diverse socioeconomic districts of Tehran city (districts 2 and 16). The fourth phase developed an intervention package based on the readiness level data and environmental scan. In the fifth phase, the effectiveness of an evidence-based intervention was determined by exploring changes in the readiness of intervention and non-intervention local communities.