Livewell Kids program effectiveness

Beach Reporter - 7/30/20

The news release referenced a report titled “Recent Trends in Childhood Obesity Prevalence in the Redondo Beach Unified School District: A Case Study.” This report was not written by the county but by a BCHD communications specialist, with contributions made by Dr. Paul Simon and Dr. Rashmi Shetgiri from LA County Public Health along with graduate student Christian Palacios, UCLA School of Public Health. Unfortunately, the extent of the professionals’ contributions to this report was not made clear in the document.

Second, the case study report “….was not a formal program evaluation” and “further research, with a more rigorous evaluation design is needed to confirm these findings.” The case study did not “validate” or evaluate the effectiveness of the LiveWell Kids program as claimed by BCHD because it lacked a rigorous evaluation design for the entire study period.

In sum, the “county report” referred to in the news release was written by BCHD, not the county. The claim of “program outcomes validated” is not substantiated because the evaluation design was not effectively rigorous. What are we to make of this? BCHD consistently blurs the line between accurate information designed to inform and marketing informercial designed to influence without concern for accuracy. Shame on them.

—Sheila Lamb, Redondo Beach