‘Let’s Go!’ initiative is decreasing childhood obesity in Maine
Launched nearly 20 years ago by MaineHealth and several community partners, Let’s Go! is a community engagement initiative designed to increase healthy eating and active living and decrease obesity. Let’s Go! uses evidence-based strategies to promote policy, systems and environmental changes that improve long-term health outcomes, with outreach to schools, outside-school programs and health care practices in all Maine counties and in Carroll County, New Hampshire.
A partnership between MaineHealth and the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention is key to leading and implementing Let’s Go!, along with engagement and support from a network of community and state partners.
The message of Let’s Go! aims to increase healthy behaviors each day. It includes the 5-2-1-0 mnemonic for children and youth: eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, limiting recreational screen time to two hours or less, engaging in one hour or more of physical activity and drinking zero sugary beverages. Small Steps, messaging geared adults, emphasizes making small, incremental behavioral changes to improve health.
In 2023, Let’s Go! partnered with 974 sites reaching more than 162,000 children and youth and 166,000 adults in Maine. Also in 2023, Let’s Go facilitated virtual or in-person trainings for more than 1,300 professionals and offered 31 on-demand learning courses. Families reported seeing the 5-2-1-0 message at their child’s doctor’s office (78%), school or early care and education programs (56%), in materials their child brings home (40%) and on social media (20%).
Let’s Go! tracks and evaluates implementation strategies and their impacts annually. It also monitors the prevalence of childhood obesity in Maine using electronic health records through MaineHealth. The prevalence of childhood obesity among MaineHealth patients ages 2-19 stabilized in 2023 at 18.4%, significantly lower than the 2020 rate. Evaluation findings are used to expand outreach to new settings, identify new partners, and tailor training, resources and support for Let’s Go! programming.