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ensure accuracy. Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How
Do We Measure Up? in communities, neighborhoods, and schools
(IOM, 2005a). It encouraged the provision of support for public
health agencies and local coalitions in their collaborative
efforts to promote and evaluate obesity prevention
interventions. State and local government agencies have
traditionally and constitutionally been the primary overseers
and implementers of public health activities. The important
functions of state and local governments mirror those of the
federal government and include leadership; the provision of
program resources, funding, and evaluation; the conduct of
statewide and local surveillance, monitoring, and research; and
the dissemination and use of the evidence resulting from
evaluations. Many states and communities throughout the nation