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Young People at a Healthy Weight ´JOGG´ – Netherlands

Summary

JOGG is a movement which encourages all people in a city, town or neighbourhood to make healthy food and exercise an easy and attractive lifestyle option for young people. It focuses on children and adolescents themselves, along with their parents and the direct environment. The main aim is to reverse the increasing trend of young people (0-19 years) with overweight/obesity. The sub-aims are: 1) To increase the amount of young people that achieve the recommended level of daily physical activity, 2) Reduce the intake of sugary drinks and increase the intake of water, 3) Increase the amount of young people that consume a healthy breakfast, 4) Increase the daily intake of fruit and vegetables and 5) Every setting (neighbourhood, school, home and health care) offers a healthy option, and promotes physical activity.

JOGG advocates a local approach in which not just the parents and health professionals, but also shopkeepers, companies, schools and local authorities join hands to ensure that young people remain at a healthy weight. The Dutch JOGG approach is based on the successful French project EPODE and consists of five pillars: political and governmental support; cooperation between the private and public sector (public private partnership); social marketing; scientific coaching and evaluation; linking prevention and health care. Currently, 84 municipalities in the Netherlands are using the JOGG approach to promote healthy weight among their youth. JOGG is coordinated at national level by the national JOGG foundation in The Hague, which is part of the Covenant on Healthy Weight. Activities at the national level:

  • Advice on creating political and managerial support
  • Training in the JOGG approach for locally involved parties
  • Information on successful interventions and best practices
  • Designing and providing municipalities with communication and information materials
  • Directions on how to implement the JOGG approach
  • Scientific research on how to measure the effects of the approach

Activities at the local level: Each city has its own JOGG-coordinator who plans various activities in relation to the 5 JOGG pillars. These activities differ between the municipalities implementing the JOGG approach. It ranges from drinking water activities at kindergarten to creating playgrounds. Municipalities commit to JOGG for at least 3 years. Besides, the 6 national private partners, about 120 partners are locally active. There are partners from the nutritional, sport, water, societal, financial and educational sectors. In the context of the 5th pillar of JOGG, connecting prevention and health care, 8 municipalities started with the new lifestyle program ‘Lifestyle Energy Fun & Friends’, based on the MEND program. MEND is a community weight management program for children aged from 7-13 year. This program was shown to be effective in England. JOGG has started with the local dissemination of the approach in 2010 in Zwolle. Currently, 84 municipalities in the Netherlands are using the JOGG approach to promote a healthy weight among the youth. Within most JOGG municipalities the programme specifically focuses on the neighbourhoods that experience the greatest challenge in terms of socio-economic and health status. The number of beneficiaries is estimated to be around 500,000 inhabitants.

 

Additional information: https://jongerenopgezondgewicht.nl/meten/lokaal

(last accessed in March 2017)

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Life Cycle Stages: Early Childhood | School Age | Work Life | 
Main Settings: community | daycare / crèche / kindergarten | family | school | sports clubs | workplace | 
Specific Topics: nutrition | physical activity | 

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