Clinical trial NCT03956849: Talking With Children About Weight and Lifestyle
Official title: Talking With Children About Weight and Lifestyle - Dutch Title: In Gesprek Over Gewicht en Leefstijl Met Kinderen
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Overweight and Obesity
Keywords: overweight
obesity
pediatric obesity
Lead sponsor: Maastricht University Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-05-21
Enrollment: 50
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Professionals working with children 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.

Brief summary: 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: 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Barriers
timeFrame: January 2021
measure: Facilitators
timeFrame: January 2021
measure: Experiences with the COACH Conversationstarter
timeFrame: January 2021
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Level of participation
timeFrame: January 2021
measure: Conversation skills
timeFrame: January 2021
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Maastricht
country: Netherlands
facility: Maastricht University Medical Center
state: Limburg
Study officials:
affiliation: Maastricht University Medical Center
name: Anita Vreugdenhil, Dr.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: