An instrument to assess the obesogenic environment of child care centers

To describe protocol and interobserver agreements of an instrument to evaluate nutrition and physical activity environments at child care.

Interobserver data were collected from 9 child care centers, through direct observation and document review (17 observer pairs).

Mean agreement between observer pairs was 87.26% and 79.29% for the observation and document review, respectively. Items with lower agreement were primarily staff behavior, counting across the day/week, and policy classifications.

Although some revisions are required, the interobserver agreement for the environment and policy assessment and observation (EPAO instrument) appears to be quite good for assessing the nutrition and physical activity environment of child care centers.