Let’s Move!: Event Study of the Effect of a Public Health Campaign on Childhood and Adolescent Obesity

Increased prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity is a growing problem that contributes to obesity-related morbidity and mortality throughout the life course. In 2010, the Let’s Move! public health campaign was introduced in the United States by Michelle Obama, with the goal of reducing childhood obesity and encouraging a healthy lifestyle in children. This study uses the most recent 9 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) each covering a 2-year representative slice of the US population over the time period from 1999/2000 (wave 1) to 2015/2016 (wave 9), to examine the effect of the Let’s Move! campaign on rates of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. We constructed 13 cohorts of children and adolescents who were less than 20 years old in 2010: first, we segment the entire data set into age-by-wave groups (e.g. 1 & 2 year-olds in wave 1; 3 & 4 year olds in wave 2; etc.); and, then, we compile these segments into quasi-longitudinal randomly selected representative cohorts. Using the event study method with wave 6 (2009/2010) as time zero, we find that the introduction of the Let’s Move campaign reduced the BMI, on average, by .311 points (SD = 0.055), and reduced the annual BMI growth by 0.16 points (SC = 0.017). The program had the largest effect on pre-pubescent children (ages 10-13).