Talking With Children About Weight and Lifestyle

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Obesity among children is a major problem. Therefore, it is important to start promoting a healthy lifestyle in an early stage. However, professionals find it difficult to start a conversation about overweight and lifestyle. Within Centre for Overweight Adolescent and Children's Healthcare (COACH) at the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+) a tool was developed, based on motivational interviewing, to help professionals engage in conversation with the children about weight and lifestyle. The aim of this study is to identify barriers and facilitators perceived by professionals, working with children, to start a conversation with a child with overweight or obesity about weight and lifestyle. In addition, this study researches the effects of the developed COACH Conversationstarter, a tool that can help healthcare professionals to start a conversation with children about overweight and lifestyle and to gain more insight in the views, thoughts and beliefs of the child and its family.

Detailed Description
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Overweight and obesity among children are major problems, not only in The Netherlands, but globally. Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk for the development of different disease, like cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders, but it can also affect quality of life. It's important to start promoting a healthy lifestyle among children and their parents in an early stage. The use of effective communication and respect to the language used is very important. However, international studies have shown that professionals experience barriers in starting a conversation about overweight and lifestyle. Examples of barriers may be fear of harm to the child, fear of parents' reactions and parents unmotivated to change. Knowledge regarding possible barriers and facilitators experienced specifically by Dutch healthcare professionals in talking about overweight is scarce. National guidelines and the development of different visual tools (such as posters with pictures of healthy portion sizes and sugar amounts in beverages) are provided as facilitators in (visually) addressing lifestyle improvement by healthcare providers. However, they mainly focus on giving advice about creating a healthy lifestyle, rather than engaging in a conversation with children and parents about the current weight and lifestyle and exploring their views. In other words: these tools are developed to directly address the measures to be taken to change lifestyle, rather than discussing the status quo and exploring the underlying motivation. Within Centre for Overweight Adolescent and Children's Healthcare (COACH) at the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+) a tool was developed, based on motivational interviewing, to help professionals engage in conversation with children with overweight or obesity about weight and lifestyle. The aim of this study is to identify barriers and facilitators perceived by healthcare professionals to start a conversation with a child about weight and lifestyle. In addition, this study researches the effects of the developed COACH Conversationstarter, a tool that can help healthcare professionals to start a conversation with children about overweight and lifestyle and to gain more insight in the views, thoughts and beliefs of the child and its family.

Official Title
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Talking With Children About Weight and Lifestyle - Dutch Title: In Gesprek Over Gewicht en Leefstijl Met Kinderen

Conditions
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Overweight and Obesity

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Training COACH Conversationstarter


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Legally capable participants Professionals working with children Working with children between 8 - 17 years. To be willing to test the COACH Conversationstarter. Exclusion Criteria: Professionals only working with children <8 years

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Professionals working with children<br>The studypopulation for this mixed-methods study is consisting of healthcareprofessionals working with children (with overweight or obesity), such as pediatric residents, paediatricians and youth health care professionals. Also other professionals working with children, not working in the field of healthcare, such as teachers, can be included in the study population. | Other: Training COACH Conversationstarter<br>* After elaborating perceived barriers and facilitators via surveys and semi-structured focusgroups, a short training with the COACH Conversationstarter will be provided to a part of the participants. The COACH Conversationstarter will be provided to the participants attending the training, which they can use in the next couple of months. After a period of time all participants will be provided with a second questionnaire, and results of the group that received the COACH Conversationstarter will be compared with the group that didn't receive the COACH Conversationstarter. (A part of) the participants that used the COACH Conversationstarter will be interviewed about their experiences. However, the study will have an observational design, since the decision if a professional is attending the training is not based on the investigator / protocol, but depending on the professional, for example logistic reasons. This is part of routine education.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Barriers | Barriers perceived by the professionals to start a conversation about weight and lifestyle with children with overweight or obesity. Within the questionnaire a first selection of barriers will be made, which will be further in-depth explored in focusgroupinterviews. | January 2021 | 
| Facilitators | Factors perceived as facilitator by the professionals to start a conversation about weight and lifestyle with children with overweight or obesity. Within the questionnaire a first selection of facilitators will be made, which will be further in-depth explored in focusgroupinterviews. | January 2021 | 
| Experiences with the COACH Conversationstarter | Experiences with the COACH Conversationstarter, regarding design, usabilty and content. Within the questionnaire a first selection of experiences will be made, which will be further in-depth explored in semi-structured interviews. | January 2021 | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Level of participation | Percentage of time that each person (professional, parent(s) or child) is involved in a lifestyle-related conversation. Professionals can indicate the different percentages within the questionnaires. | January 2021 | 
| Conversation skills | Confidence and thoughts about the own conversation skills of the professionals, for example regarding motivational interviewing. Measured within the questionnaire on a Likert-scale. | January 2021 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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obesity, overweight, pediatric obesity