State Health Equity Toolkit

African American family prepares vegetables in kitchen.

Welcome to the Health Equity Resource Toolkit for State Practitioners Addressing Obesity Disparities pdf icon[PDF-3.78MB] from CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO). This Toolkit and website will assist public health practitioners with a systematic approach to program planning using a health equity lens.

Obesity has been on the rise in the United States over the past two decades and is at high levels. In addition to population-wide trends, obesity affects some groups more than others. Obesity can be associated with age, income, disability, education, gender, race and ethnicity and geographic region.

Young women cheers with water bottles after group fitness.

The Health Equity Toolkit is designed to increase the capacity of state health departments and their partners to work with and through communities. The intent is to implement effective responses to obesity in populations that are facing health disparities. The toolkit provides a six-step process for planning, implementing, and evaluating a program to address obesity disparities.

The toolkit begins with an introduction of the US burden of obesity and its disparities. The toolkit then provides a description of a recommended conceptual framework using the social ecological model. Sections discuss the six planning steps and considerations of the process. Each section contains:

  • Basic description of the step of the process and suggested evidence-informed actions to help address obesity disparities.
  • Practical tools for carrying out activities to help reduce obesity disparities.
  • A case study of a successful state-level effort to address obesity with a focus on health equity that is particularly relevant to the content in that section.
  • Hyperlinks to additional resources.

Our hope is that with these resources, you will be better equipped to make system and environmental changes to reduce obesity disparities and achieve health equity.

This website guides public health practitioners in using the Health Equity Resource Toolkit for State Practitioners Addressing Obesity Disparities.

Website Objectives

Although publicly accessible, the toolkit and this complementary website will be most effectively applied by institutions and practitioners at the state level. The toolkit is designed for public health practitioners currently conducting or planning to implement obesity interventions with a focus on health equity.

This website is intended to assist public health practitioners understand and apply the contents of the Health Equity Resource Toolkit for State Practitioners Addressing Obesity Disparities pdf icon[PDF-3.77MB].

This site complements the toolkit. The website is not intended as a standalone instrument or an alternative resource for the process and strategies in the toolkit. It is crucial that you access the PDF version of the toolkit and familiarize yourself with its contents before beginning implementation.

As you navigate this website, you will also be referred to individual sections of the toolkit. You may refer back to any section of this website at any point.

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