299417
What Do Parents Want for Their Overweight (OW) Children When Visiting the Pediatrician?
Methods: To determine whether parental preferences regarding weight-management strategies differ by child age, gender, race/ethnicity, severity-of-overweight, and parental agreement with their child’s overweight assessment, 20-question surveys were administered to parents of 2-18 year-old (yo) overweight children at a primary-care clinic. Multivariable analyses examined factors associated with child presence during weight discussions being helpful (vs. neutral/harmful), agreement with physician overweight assessments, and prescribing weight-loss diets.
Results: For parents (N=217), the mean age was 34 yo. Of the children, 34% were 2-5, 38% 6-11, and 28% 12-18 yo; 43% were female, 61% Latino, 33% African-American, 36% overweight, 42% obese, and 22% severely obese. For parents, 83% stated that child presence during weight discussions would be helpful, 69% agreed that their child was overweight, and 74% agreed that pediatricians should prescribe diets. In multivariable analyses, parents of older (6-11 yo: OR, 4.6, 95% CI, 1.3-16; 12-18 yo: OR, 23, 95% CI, 4-136; comparison group=2-5 yo) children had greater odds of stating that child presence during weight discussions would be helpful. Latinos (OR, 5.0; 95% CI, 2-10) and parents who agreed that their child was overweight (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.03-5.8) had greater odds of stating that pediatricians should prescribe diets.
Conclusion: Effective primary-care weight-management strategies, including child presence during weight discussions and prescribing weight-loss diets, may require tailoring by child age, gender, race/ethnicity, and parental agreement with child overweight assessments.
Learning Areas:
Provision of health care to the publicLearning Objectives:
Identify parental preferences for weight-management strategies in the primary-care setting. Describe the association of child age with parental agreement that a child's presence during weight discussions is helpful. Explain how race/ethnicity and parental agreement of overweight are associated with parental desire for pediatricians to prescribe diets.
Keyword(s): Child Health, Obesity
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a board-certified general pediatrician who has provided counseling on obesity prevention to families for approximately 18 years. I am currently enrolled in a Fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics at the University of Texas, Southwestern.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.