Community engagement and pediatric obesity: Incorporating social determinants of health into treatment

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a complex and multi-faceted problem, with contributors ranging from individual health behaviors to public policy. For clinicians who treat pediatric obesity, environmental factors that impact this condition in a child or family can be difficult to address in a clinical setting. Community-clinic partnerships are one method to address places and policies that influence a person’s weight and health; however, such partnerships are typically geared toward community-located health behavior change rather than the deeper social determinants of health (SDH), limiting effective behavioral change. Community-engaged research offers a framework for developing community-clinic partnerships to address SDH germane to obesity treatment. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between SDH and pediatric obesity treatment, use of community-clinic partnerships to address SDH in obesity treatment, and how community engagement can be a framework for creating and harnessing these partnerships. We present examples of programs begun by one pediatric obesity clinic using community-engagement principles to address obesity.

Multi-sector stakeholder's perceptions of determinants of successful implementation of a pediatric weight management intervention

“…As found in our study, fostering partnerships between the clinic and community organizations has been cited as critical to the success of interventions ( 25 , 26 ). These relationships allow for the inclusion of creative ideas and solutions to problems drawing on multiple resources across the community, and making the best use of limited resources.…”

Diabetes and prediabetes prevalence through a community-based screening initiative in Alqunfudah, Saudi Arabia

“…The approach of community engagement was proved to be effective in diabetes screening and management of T2DM [ 26 , 27 ]. This approach was also effective in management of many chronic diseases like bronchial asthma [ 28 ], hypertension [ 29 ] and obesity [ 30 ].…”

“…According to research, the chance of being diabetes is double or more among overweight and obese people compared with non-overweight people in all categories. A unit increase in BMI increases the probability of developing diabetes by roughly 1.5% among overweight and obese people [ 30 ].…”

Associations of longitudinal BMI percentile classification patterns in early childhood with neighborhood-level social determinants of health

“…For all of these high risk groups, it would be critically important to engage the community in developing effective interventions that address neighborhood barriers to child health. Indeed, numerous experts recommend the use of culturally-grounded programming and multi-sector collaborations for reducing obesity-related disparities driven by SDOH, as well as partnering with communities and leveraging community health workers to increase access to programs and resources to improve family and child health (Schroeder et al, 2018;Soltero et al, 2021) and help families overcome barriers to care, such as food insecurity, poverty, lack of transportation, and mental health support (Kumanyika, 2019;Schroeder et al, 2018;Skelton et al, 2020;Soltero et al, 2021).…”