WHO - World Health Organization

12/07/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/08/2022 04:41

NCD Lab series: Preventing obesity through board and online games in Chile

In several schools in Chile's capital Santiago, students taking part in the Juntos Santiago project to learn about the health risks of overweight and obesity in a playful way, and win rewards for eating healthy or engaging in physical activity with their families.

Together with their classmates, they play a classroom boardgame called Navigator, which tells the story of avoiding unhealthy habits and reaching the finish line symbolising good health. To win a challenge, children can bring healthy snacks from home. Barcodes on snacks can be scanned with a mobile phone application that automatically assigns points based on how processed food items are. Students can also upload pictures of healthy activities with their families to an online platform, and use pedometers to count steps and be more active.

The rewards are then shared among all students in the class. They include infrastructure upgrades such as climbing walls and table tennis equipment, or fun activities like a day out at the community pool or local amusement park.

The Juntos Santiago project uses an innovative gamification strategy that engages students, families, and teachers and puts preventing obesity and promoting healthier diets at the centre.

"The children we work and play with are excited to learn about healthier dietary and lifestyle choices through a game, and prizes sponsored by the city offer them a real incentive", says project lead Macarena Carranza Pérez-Tinao, a pharmacist and nutritionist who started this project.

Chile has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Recent studies show that over 50% of pre-school children in Chile are overweight and at increased risk of developing obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a young age.

Ultra-processed foods such as sugary beverages, ready-made desserts and fast food are considered a main driver of the obesity epidemic. In many Latin American countries, sales of ultra-processed food have increased dramatically in recent years due to rapid economic, trade and labor force transitions and increasing urbanization.

Starting in 2017 as a pilot project, Juntos Santiago has since grown to include nearly 7,000 students and proven effective to achieving healthy weight and reduced systolic blood pressure among students in participating schools. Participating students also measurably improved their consumption of healthy snacks and engaged in more physical activities.

Read more about the 2022 NCD Lab projects Juntos Santiago.

Addressing obesity and noncommunicable diseases though grassroots innovation

More than a billion people worldwide are living with obesity. They are at higher risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and cancer, and also more likely to experience mental health issues.

The global rise in obesity particularly affects low- and middle-income countries, where the number of people living with obesity has doubled since 2010. Responding to these alarming trends, WHO's Acceleration Plan to STOP Obesity supports countries in preventing and managing obesity throughout the life course, including through fiscal policies, regulations on food and beverage marketing, food labelling and public education and awareness.

The NCD Lab is a platform launched by WHO's Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs (GCM/NCD) to crowdsource and promote grassroots innovation for NCD prevention and control. Accounting for local context and building on strong community ownership, bottom-up health initiatives often prove highly effective and have the potential to scale.