(P02-036-23) Putting People Back Into Community Food Systems: Community-Based System Dynamics Children's Healthy Living Food Systems (CHLFS) Protocol in Five Pacific Jurisdictions

Objectives: This study focuses on the protocol developed for understanding how multilevel factors may interact and help to explain 1. successful intervention effects from the Children's Healthy Living (CHL) community randomized intervention on children's diet and obesity, and 2. how community-based systems can contribute to more resilient and sustainable food systems and improved nutrition for children.

Methods: The protocol combines secondary analysis of data from the CHL intervention with the results from one-day in-person group model building (GMB) workshops and follow-up meetings across five Pacific jurisdictions, to ultimately develop a system dynamics simulation model using a mixed methods research design. GMB workshops were co-led by trained local co-investigators who customized workshops and invited participants whose work related to food systems and child food programs. GMB workshops included background on the CHL intervention and maintenance effects on diet and health; preliminary CHL findings on signature dietary components (related to child obesity and acanthosis nigricans); and a series of participant-engaged GMB activities that resulted in causal loop diagrams (CLD), and actions and ideas for each jurisdiction - Alaska, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and Hawai‘i. Workshops were evaluated with pre-post surveys.

Results: CLD showed that community food systems play an important role in shaping accessibility, availability, affordability, and acceptability of healthy food for children. While there are similarities in community food systems across these diverse jurisdictions, there were also unique feedback mechanisms. Workshop evaluations indicated that participants appreciated insights that the CLD revealed, benefited from networking, and were inspired by actions generated.

Conclusions: The GMB workshop protocol developed by the CHL team is suitable to address community needs in these diverse Pacific jurisdictions and can be used to develop community-based system dynamics causal maps and simulation models aimed at strengthening local food systems for improving child nutrition and health.

Funding Sources: USDA/NIFA/AFRI, NIH/NHLBI