Talking With Children About Weight and Lifestyle

NCT ID: NCT03956849

Last Updated: 2021-11-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Total Enrollment

50 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-02-13

Study Completion Date

2023-05-31

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.

Conditions

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Overweight and Obesity

Keywords

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overweight obesity pediatric obesity

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

OTHER

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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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.

Training COACH Conversationstarter

Intervention Type OTHER

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.

Interventions

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Training COACH Conversationstarter

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.

Intervention Type OTHER

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
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Maastricht University Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Anita Vreugdenhil, Dr.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Maastricht University Medical Center

Locations

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Maastricht University Medical Center

Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Netherlands

Central Contacts

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Anita Vreugdenhil

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 0031 43 3875284

Email: [email protected]

Facility Contacts

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Anita Vreugdenhil, Dr.

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

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2018-0931

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id