Topic: Obesity, Nutrition/Diet, Physical Activity
Target Population: Adolescents, Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, Young Adults, Parents
Sector: Community-Based
This program is for individuals who are 22 years old or younger and have a body mass index above the 95th percentile and their parents.
Bull City Fit, a component of the Duke Healthy Lifestyles Program*, is a community-based wellness program that is designed to prevent childhood obesity by increasing participant's physical-activity levels, self-efficacy, healthy-eating knowledge and habits, and motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle.
*A separate Fact Sheet is available for this program.
No peer-reviewed publications evaluating the effectiveness of this program, when implemented by itself, were located.
Bull City Fit is a partnership between Duke Children’s pediatric weight-management clinic and Durham Department of Parks and Recreation. The program intends to provide a supportive environment in which participants can play, exercise, learn healthy behaviors, and increase self-esteem. Free sessions are offered on weekday evenings and weekend afternoons and include the following:
Parents sign a waiver for their child’s participation, are required to stay for all activities, and are encouraged to participate. Other family members may also participate.
The program was launched in 2012 and is currently being offered in Durham, North Carolina. To date, over 600 children and 500 volunteers have participated in the program. The program serves approximately 50 families every year.
Trained staff and volunteers supervise and facilitate all activities; however, no information on any specific training or background qualifications for these individuals was located. For more information, please use the details in the Contact section.
Considerations for implementing this program include forming a partnership between a pediatric weight-management clinic and a parks and recreation department; gaining buy-in from key stakeholders, including youth, parents, parks and recreation representatives, clinical providers, and staff; ensuring staff receive training; locating adequate space for activities; and acquiring equipment for activities such as sports equipment, cooking equipment, and gardening seeds and tools.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing Bull City Fit, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Six 2-hour sessions are offered each week, and participants are encouraged to attend at least two of these sessions. Participants can attend as many sessions as they want while they are participating in the Healthy Lifestyles Program.
Information on implementation costs was not located.
To move Bull City Fit to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation should be performed demonstrating positive effects lasting at least six months from program completion.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact Duke Health by visiting https://www.dukehealth.org/contact-us/compliments-suggestions-and-complaints
https://www.bullcityfit.org (This website no longer contains program information), https://fitness.fandom.com/wiki/Bull_City_Fit, https://pediatrics.duke.edu/news/durham-children-become-bull-city-fit, https://www.facebook.com/bullcityfit/, https://www.dukehealth.org/pediatric-treatments/childhood-obesity and Andrews et al. (2018)
Andrews, M., Sawyer, C., Frerichs, L., Skinner, A. C., Hoffman, J., Gaskin, K., & Armstrong, S. (2018). Feasibility of a clinic-community partnership to treat childhood obesity. Clinical Pediatrics, 57(7), 783-791. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922817734359
Armstrong, S. C., Windom, M., Bihlmeyer, N. A., Shah, S. H., Shah, S. H., … Skinner, A. C. (2020). Rationale and design of "Hearts & Parks": Study protocol for a pragmatic randomized clinical trial of an integrated clinic-community intervention to treat pediatric obesity. BMC Pediatrics, 20(1), 308-308. https://doi.org/10/1186/s12887-020-02190-x
Frerichs, L., Smith, N. R., Lyden, J., Gaskin, K., Skinner, A., & Armstrong, S. (2020). Weight-related quality of life and temperament as predictors and moderators of outcomes among treatment-seeking, low-income, ethnically diverse children with obesity. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(1), 244-253. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby115
Hoffman, J., Frerichs, L., Story, M., Jones, J., Gaskin, K., Apple, A., … Armstrong, S. (2018). An integrated clinic-community partnership for child obesity treatment: A randomized pilot trial. Pediatrics, 141(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-1444
Pasquale, E., Neshteruk, C. D., Howard, J., Skinner, A. C., Story, M., Frerichs, L. M., & Armstrong, S. C. (2020). An integrated clinic-community model to treat childhood obesity: Revisiting 2 years later. Clinical Pediatrics, 59(12), 1092-1096. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922820930368
Suarez, L., Skinner, A. C., Truong, T., McCann, J. R., Rawls, J. F., Seed, P. C., & Armstrong, S. C. (2022). Advanced Obesity Treatment Selection among Adolescents in a Pediatric Weight Management Program. Childhood Obesity, 18(4), 237-245.
