Talking About Weight With Families: An Innovative Educational Strategy

Childhood Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title:

Talking About Weight With Families: An Innovative Educational Strategy

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03664492
• Other study ID #: 1000055748
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 10, 2018
• Est. completion date: December 15, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: February 2021
• Source: The Hospital for Sick Children
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Tools are limited to help health care professionals and parents talk about weight-related issues with their paediatric patients and children, respectively. The investigators have developed two whiteboard videos: 1) to aim to help health care professionals talk about weight-related issues with paediatric patients and their families, and 2) to aim to help parents feel more comfortable talking about weight with their children. This study aims to evaluate the videos using pre and post questionnaires. With the questionnaires, the investigators want to evaluate the content, the quality, the usability of the video and to measure how helpful the video were for health care professionals and parents.

Description:

Nearly one third of Canadian children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Eating disorders are the third most common chronic condition in adolescents. Although both of these issues are highly prevalent, parents who have children struggling with either underweight or overweight are concerned about how to approach those topics. Even though they are usually well-intended, their intervention may have a negative impact. Indeed, research has shown that parents who encourage their children to diet or discuss their own diet is associated with overweight or eating disorders in their children. Conversely, if parents focus on healthful eating behaviors, overweight adolescents are less likely to diet and to use unhealthy weight-control behaviors. In that context, in order to help children struggling with unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, the development of educational materials to promote healthy and helpful conversation about weight for parents is critically needed. While the use of educational videos with parents has been studied, this will be the first study examining videos to educate parents regarding weight-related communication.

Available literature also suggests that health care professionals feel ill-equipped to address weight-related issues with their patients, particularly obesity. A lack of self-efficacy and training are recognized as two significant barriers to discussing weight with patients and their families. Other challenges include the fear of damaging their relationship with patients and their families and the apprehension of triggering other issues such as eating disorders. Thus, educational materials to help health care professionals talk about weight-related issues with their patients are warranted. Educational videos have been shown to be an effective way to improve knowledge, confidence, and attitudes of health care professionals and trainees.

The investigators have designed two whiteboard videos based on a weight-related communication scoping review and on the key messages identified in a focus groups conducted previously by our group (McPherson A et al. Talking with children and families about obesity and weight related topics: A scoping review of best practices. Obes Rev.). They will evaluate the videos using pre and post questionnaires directed on usability, content, quality (acceptability, engagement) and measuring the impact on perceived self-efficacy in regards to discussing weight. The investigators will also evaluate the impact of the video over time with a third questionnaire 4 to 6 months later. The pre questionnaire for parents will include socio-demographic questions to enable us to provide sample characteristics. These data will be collected as they are known to have impact on the way weight is perceived. The investigators hypothesize that health care professionals' perceived self-efficacy on discussing weight-related issues with their paediatric patients and parents' perceived self-efficacy on raising weight issues with their children and answering their answers on that topic will improve after watching the videos, and will persist over time.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 128
• Est. completion date: December 15, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: December 15, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Health care professionals and trainees

• Parents with a child under 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to speak and read English fluently

• Moderate to severe cognitive impairment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Childhood Obesity
• Pediatric Obesity

Intervention

Other:
• Educational whiteboard video
Participants will be prompted to complete pre-questionnaire, followed by access to the video, with a prompt to complete the post questionnaire after. If they agree, they will receive 4 to 6 months later, a third questionnaire to complete. For those without access to the internet, we will offer to them view the video at the SickKids at their convenience.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	The Hospital for Sick Children	Toronto	Ontario

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The Hospital for Sick Children

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

References & Publications (1)

Klupt KA, Oreskovich SM, Bernard-Genest J, Patel BP, Chu L, Dettmer E, Walsh CM, Strom M, McPherson AC, Strub J, Steinberg A, Steinegger C, Hamilton JK. Careful conversations: an educational video to support parents in communicating about weight with thei — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Post Questionnaire - Parents (4-6 mo) - Confidence in ability to raise the issue about weight	Change in confidence level in their ability to raise the issue/talk about weight with their children using a scale from 0-100.	4 - 6 months post education video
Primary	Post Questionnaire - Parents (4-6 mo) - Level of agreement in statements related to behvaiour change	Level of agreement in statements related to behaviour change post education using in a 5 point likert scale	4 - 6 months post education video
Primary	Health Care Professional Post Questionnaire - Confidence in initiating conversation about overweight	Change in confidence level for initiating a conversation with a family or pediatric patient that meets criteria for overweight or obesity using a scale from 0-100.	immediately post education video
Primary	Health Care Professional Post Questionnaire - Confidence in initiating conversation about underweight	Change in confidence level for initiating a conversation with a family or pediatric patient that meets criteria for underweight using a scale from 0-100.	immediately post education video
Primary	Health Care Professional Questionnaire (4-6 Months Post) Confidence in initiating conversation about overweight	Change in confidence level for initiating a conversation with a family or pediatric patient that meets criteria for underweight using a scale from 0-100.	4 - 6 months post education video
Primary	Health Care Professional Questionnaire (4-6 Months Post) Confidence in initiating conversation about underweight	Change in confidence level for initiating a conversation with a family or pediatric patient that meets criteria for overweight or obesity using a scale from 0-100.	4 - 6 months post education video