A robust public health response is needed to stem the epidemic of obesity in the United States. More than one-third of the US population is now obese (1). Geographic and culturally distinct patterns exist at the local level, underscoring the importance of a dedicated local public health effort. In 2007, county-level obesity prevalence ranged from 12% to 44%; more than two-thirds of counties in southern states had an obesity prevalence of 31% or more (2).

The extent of obesity prevention activities conducted by local health departments (LHDs) varies widely. A recent study that examined LHD prevention activities related to county-level obesity prevalence identified a gap in the LHD response to the epidemic (3). Local public health jurisdictions with high obesity prevalence were no more likely to deliver programs than those with low prevalence, suggesting that local infrastructure may be lacking where prevention is most needed. Even after obesity had become an explicit national public health priority (4), only about half of LHDs had active efforts in obesity prevention (5,6). Some data suggest that in counties where LHDs have maintained obesity prevention programs, over time obesity prevalence began to decline (7).

Many programs have invested government and foundation resources in comprehensive obesity-prevention approaches, including funding local organizations, providing policy advocacy, and strengthening evidence-based practices (8,9). Increasingly, the approach is based on a socioeconomic framework that emphasizes improving opportunities for healthy choices in communities, particularly where such opportunities are lacking (10–12). This reorientation from individual behavior-change models to policy, systems, and environmental change requires a new set of skills that mark a departure from traditional approaches to health promotion (13,14). The implementation challenge may be greater at local levels given the large degree of variability in funding structures, areas of program focus, and capacity to integrate innovations into existing practice (15).

Identification of structural factors related to LHD success in implementing innovative approaches is needed. The purpose of this qualitative study was to characterize the role of LHDs in obesity prevention and identify barriers and facilitators of successful local practice, on the basis of interviews conducted with state obesity prevention program directors.

This qualitative study consisted of 28 semistructured interviews with state and regional health department employees from 22 states, conducted from June 2011 through August 2011. All consenting respondents were interviewed via telephone by a graduate student who was trained in interviewing techniques by experts at the local institution. Each of the 28 interviews was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The study was approved by the institutional review board at Washington University in St. Louis.

A series of open-ended questions was developed to elicit the breadth of obesity prevention efforts at LHDs, barriers and facilitators to prevention efforts, and ideas to improve practice (Appendix). Additional probes were created to allow further exploration of ideas that emerged during the interview. The interview guide (Appendix) was pilot-tested with current and former public health practitioners and researchers.

Participants were recruited from the 25 states receiving funding through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) State-Based Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases. Key informants were identified from the list of program directors on the CDC website (16). Researchers contacted potential participants initially by e-mail to familiarize them with the project and then by telephone to request their participation. An additional 6 participants from 3 states were recruited through initial interviewees.

We used a general inductive approach to guide our data analysis (17). Because the interview was semistructured, a preliminary codebook with themes was created in advance by members of the research team (K.A.S., M.L., C.L., E.K.). Additional themes were identified as they emerged from the data. Two members of the research team reviewed the transcripts to ascertain whether any additional codes were needed (C.L., E.K.). This process continued until agreement was reached that the codebook contained all relevant themes. Two researchers independently coded each transcript using the finalized codebook. Inter-rater reliability from this initial round of results was assessed by calculating κ for 10 different codes on a selected portion of 6 randomly chosen interviews (mean κ = 0.47) (18). Conflicts in coding were reconciled by discussing the discrepancies and reaching a consensus (K.A.S., M.L., C.L., E.K.). Coded transcripts were then stratified into 2 groups on the basis of the state’s public health governance structure as defined by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) (19). Centralized states were defined as such if employees of local health units were considered state employees, and decentralized states were defined as such if local health units were led by employees of local governments. Two respondents represented states with mixed or shared structures, each of which was grouped with the centralized or decentralized states on the basis of the predominant similarity of described practice structures. We identified and analyzed recurring themes and key quotations for the 2 groups of coded transcripts.

The final sample included 28 key informants from 22 states, representing 6 with centralized and 16 with decentralized governance structures. The 3 main themes that emerged from the analysis were 1) role of the LHD, 2) barriers to LHD success in obesity prevention, and 3) facilitators of LHD success in obesity prevention (Table).

The role that LHDs were described as playing in obesity prevention and the types of relationships that exist between state and local agencies varied across the states included in this study, with distinct patterns reflecting governance structure (decentralized vs centralized). Although several obstacles to a robust local response were noted, many structures and processes that bolstered obesity prevention efforts in LHDs were also described. These findings underscore some of the challenges to implementing obesity prevention programs and activities in LHDs and provide insight into the strategies state and local practitioners are using to successfully, and often synergistically, implement innovative (and evidence-informed) community-based interventions.

Unlike other areas of public health practice that have clear, concise sets of guidelines grounded in scientific evidence, the course is much less defined in obesity prevention. For example, many evidence-based recommendations guide specific public health actions related to tobacco-use cessation, as described in the Guide for Community Preventive Services (20). In obesity prevention, guidelines offer a much more heterogeneous range of recommendations related to weight reduction, physical activity promotion, and nutrition interventions, which vary widely in the strength of evidence. Other resources for recommended practices in obesity prevention based on expert consensus provide a varied list of potential activities, many geared toward policy and environmental change to increase opportunities for healthful eating and active living (14,21,22). Although these practices offer promising avenues, their successful implementation requires a high level of skill and experience as well as the cooperation of non–public-health sectors. A study conducted in California by Schwarte et al (23) found that the obesity prevention efforts of many LHDs were organized, staffed, and trained to focus on individual education rather than environmental factors, such as the availability of healthful food options. The authors identified a need for greater local workforce capacity and particularly new skills in areas of policy change, land use, and transportation, and the ability to form and mobilize partnerships across sectors and to take a community leadership role in guiding evidence-based practice.

Whether there is widespread local infrastructure to support LHD practice in obesity prevention is uncertain. Between 2008 and 2010, US LHDs lost approximately 12,000 employees (24), and primary prevention programs were prominent among those most frequently eliminated (25). LHD activity in the area of policy, thought to be the most reliable driver of health outcomes, is not strong and particularly low in rural areas (26). Furthermore, communication networks between LHDs across the nation are sparse (27). However, a focus on workforce training is linked to quality improvement and accreditation, creating opportunities to strengthen dissemination and implementation of innovative practice (28). As an example, the Public Health Accreditation Board requires agencies to conduct CHAs and CHIPs as a prerequisite to application (29). Through this process, it follows that LHDs with a high burden of obesity will prioritize obesity prevention and develop strategies for its amelioration through policy change and evidence-based practice.

Structural differences in how state and local agencies divide authority vary across states and affect the roles LHDs play in obesity prevention. More than half of US states have decentralized governance systems (representing 68% of LHDs) where local public health organizations have decision-making authority (6). In states with centralized governance, local health units are primarily led by employees of the state that retains authority over local decisions. Five states have mixed or shared authority, but pivotal decision-making power is still retained by the state (19). Although our classification for state public health governance structure was based on an established scheme by ASTHO (19), structures may be operationalized differently across programs. Therefore, it is important to interpret findings in terms of generalizable groupings while also considering the context within which public health operates in each state and locality.

Our results reflect the experiences and perceptions of state-level respondents administering a federally funded obesity prevention program in a selection of states; patterns of practice may differ substantially in states and localities not included in this sample. When this study was conducted, only half of the states received federal funding for obesity prevention; there is now funding (via CDC-RFA-DP13–1305) to all states. Also, the perspectives of practitioners on successful practice in this state-level sample may differ from those of local practitioners. Although their perspectives may allow comparisons across local models with which they have interacted, they do not represent the direct experience of local practitioners. In addition, our sample included various contexts that may encompass competing viewpoints of the role of public health in community life, which may influence the type of activities conducted in obesity prevention (especially pertaining to policy and environmental changes). Finally, local efforts in obesity prevention are not confined to LHDs. To fully characterize local public health efforts, it is important to examine how LHDs connect with others at the local level.

The change in the nature of obesity prevention requires a rethinking of the state–local relationship, especially in centralized states. For example, to the extent that obesity prevention has historically relied on various forms of nutrition education, centralized models of public health may have been more supportive. However, now that obesity prevention increasingly involves policy and environmental approaches, requiring cross-sector linkages with other community members, agencies and institutions, it requires strong local roots. The ideal system for implementing effective, evidence-informed public health interventions likely involves a combination of community linkages and leadership with a vertical information exchange. To scale up evidence-informed practices across multiple settings, a better understanding of strategies to improve public health systems and structures around obesity prevention is needed, on the basis of implementation frameworks that account for the challenges faced by LHDs (30).