Innovative Tools Help Counselors Discuss Childhood Obesity with Parents

Abstract

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity pose potential health risks for many children under the age of 5 years. Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutritionists are in a unique position to help reduce this problem because of their frequent counseling contacts with clients during certification visits. Therefore, four new tools to facilitate nutritional counseling of parents of overweight children during certifications were developed and systematically evaluated.Methods: The Nutrition and Activity Self-History (NASH) form, Report Card/Action Plan (ReCAP), Talking Tips, and Healthy Weight Poster were evaluated by WIC nutritionists via an online survey. Anchors on the Likert scale were 0 for Strongly Disagree to 6 for Strongly Agree. Four regional focus groups were also conducted. Data were analyzed descriptively.Results: The response rate on the survey was 83% (n = 63). Focus groups were comprised of staff that volunteered to participate (n = 34). The NASH form, which replaces a food frequency questionnaire for identifying nutrition risk, had a mean rating of 5.20 as ''Helpful when counseling about weight.'' The ReCAP, Talking Tips, and Healthy Weight Poster achieved mean ratings of 5.70, 4.75, and 5.30, respectively, in this category. Focus group responses were very positive about the usefulness of the ReCAP and Healthy Weight Poster to visually convey the concept of BMI percentile for age using a green, yellow, and red color-coded ''traffic light'' approach to showing healthy versus unhealthy BMI values.Conclusions: WIC programs and other pediatric health care settings may want to consider adopting these innovative tools to better serve their clients and address pediatric overweight in the populations they serve.

Brief Training in Patient-Centered Counseling for Healthy Weight Management Increases Counseling Self-efficacy and Goal Setting Among Pediatric Primary Care Providers

“…This was followed by an interactive skill building session. Each participant was also provided with a take home “toolkit” to support their counseling efforts, which included a poster depicting a color-coded body mass index (BMI) chart, 15 a Healthy Habits questionnaire for parents, and an educational handout on the Strong4Life healthy habits recommendations. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if the Strong4Life Provider Training program was effective at increasing the counseling self-efficacy of pediatric care providers and the frequency of weight management–related counseling and goal setting during well-child visits…”

Human-centered designed communication tools for obesity prevention in early life

“…A poster also utilizes downtime while parents wait to see their provider. Previous work shows that posters can be successful pediatric public health education tools, ( Brown et al, Jul 2020 , Herrera et al, 2013 ) and may help facilitate conversations about pediatric weight. ( Brown et al, Jul 2020 ) We intend to examine whether our poster improves parent/provider communication about early life obesity prevention in future research.…”

A randomized controlled trial examining an exam room poster to prompt communication about weight

“…Posters encouraging conversations with providers have been used to support BMI screening and have been suggested as a way to ‘visualize’ healthy weight . Additionally, posters depicting color‐coded BMI zones have been shown to promote dialogue about healthy weight between parents and WIC nutritionists . Despite the abundance of educational materials with health promoting and obesity prevention messages, very few studies have examined their effectiveness in clinical settings.…”