Parent Perceptions of Weight Status: Impact of a Pilot Intervention

University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Education Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00867373

07-0329

Details and patient eligibility

About

This pilot study is a randomized controlled trial with an embedded cross sectional study exploring parental perceptions of their weight status and how it affects their perceptions of their child's weight status. This study uses an educational intervention in which parents are informed of their actual weight status and how it affects their child's health. We will study the effect of this intervention on the parent's perceptions of and level of concern for their own and their child's weight status.

Full description

Pediatric obesity has tripled in the past 20 years. Obesity prevention early in life is important and parental participation is essential. Parents must recognize overweight in their child so health providers may engage them in a dialogue to change their child's diet and physical activity patterns, yet a large proportion of parents do not recognize that their child is overweight. Parents' misperception of their overweight child's weight status presents a barrier to treating obesity.

This pilot study is a randomized controlled trial with an embedded cross sectional study exploring parental perceptions of their weight status and how it affects their perceptions of their child's weight status. This study uses an educational intervention in which parents are informed of their actual weight status and how it affects their child's health. We will study the effect of this intervention on the parent's perceptions of and level of concern for their own and their child's weight status.

Our goal is to develop a primary care intervention that will enhance parental perceptions of overweight and motivation to make changes for their family. Pilot data collected here will support an R21 Exploratory/Developmental Clinical Research Grant in Obesity or a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) grant submission.

Enrollment: 222 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 13 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Boys and girls ages 3 to 13 years old presenting with at least one biological parent for a routine health maintenance exam (WCC) at the Child Health Continuity Clinic will be eligible. Parents must be able and willing to have their height and weight measured at the clinic

Exclusion criteria

1. Child has previously been referred to a nutritionist/dietician or specialized clinic/program for weight management
2. Child is currently being treated for failure to thrive
3. Child is on parenteral nutrition
4. Child is on chronic systemic steroid therapy
5. Child is non-mobile/wheelchair bound
6. The family has previously enrolled into the study with a prior sibling
7. Family is unable to be contacted at home
8. Presenting parent cannot speak and read English or Spanish at at least a 5th grade level

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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222 participants in 2 patient groups

Education Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention used in the randomized controlled trial consists of 1) measuring the parents' height and weight and 2) providing the parents with feedback on their calculated BMI on an educational handout (included in Appendix V). The purpose of the handout is to convey the following 5 messages: Definition of BMI How BMI is calculated What the parent's BMI is based on the measurements taken What weight category the parent is in (underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese) Children with overweight or obese parents are at higher risk of becoming overweight themselves. The Research Assistant will verbally review the educational handout with the parent. The handout will be available in both English and Spanish.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Education Intervention

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Parents assigned to the control group will proceed to their child's well child visit after their baseline data are collected.