Planting a seed - child health care nurses’ perceptions of speaking to parents about overweight and obesity: a qualitative study within the STOP project (original) (raw)
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Swedish Child Health Care nurses conceptions of overweight in children: a qualitative study
BMC Family Practice, 2012
Background: Registered Sick Children's Nurses and District Nurses employed at Child Health Care centres are in a position to help prevent childhood overweight and obesity. Prevention of this challenging public health threat could be improved through having a better understanding of how this group of nurses perceives childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to elucidate the conceptions of childhood overweight, including obesity, among nurses working in Child Health Care. Method: A qualitative study using a phenomenographic approach, based on open-ended interviews with 18 Child Health Care nurses (CHC-nurses) strategically selected from 17 Child Health Care Centres in the southern part of Sweden. Results: Four categories of description emerged from the data: Perception of childhood overweight changes, Overweight in younger children a neglected concern, Overweight a delicate issue and Importance of family lifestyle. The participating CHC-nurses conceived overweight in children, primarily obesity in children to be an extensive and serious problem which affects children, families and the surrounding society. Overweight in children was further perceived as a consequence of their parent's lifestyle and their awareness of the problem, which was considered by the CHC-nurses as a sensitive and a provoking issue. It was also perceived that overweight in children is not taken seriously during the pre-school period and that concerns regarding overweight in younger children were mainly about the appearance and not the health of the child. The CHC-nurses perceived that the proportion of overweight children has increased, which Swedish society and the CHC-nurses have adapted to. This adaptation makes it difficult for CHC-nurses to define those children who are overweight. Conclusion: CHC-nurses provide a comprehensive and complex picture of childhood overweight, which includes several difficulties dealing with this issue. Attention to CHC-nurse's conceptions of overweight in children is important since it can affect the parent-nurse relationship and thereby the nurse's, as well as the parent's efforts to influence the children's weight. It is suggested that CHC-nurses should work with person centered counseling and empowerment concerning parent to child relations in cases involving overweight.
Obstacles to the prevention of overweight and obesity in the context of child health care in Sweden
BMC Family Practice, 2013
Overweight and obesity in younger children could better be brought in focus through a deeper understanding of how Child Health Care nurses (CHC-nurses) perceive their work with the problems of overweight at the CHC Centers. The aim of this study was to elucidate the CHCnurses conceptions of their preventive work with childhood overweight and obesity in Child Health Care.
Childhood overweight and obesity conceived by Child Health Care nurses : a qualitative study
2012
Background: Registered Sick Children’s Nurses and District Nurses employed at Child Health Care centres are in a position to help prevent childhood overweight and obesity. Prevention of this challenging public health threat could be improved through having a better understanding of how this group of nurses perceives childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to elucidate the conceptions of childhood overweight, including obesity, among nurses working in Child Health Care. Method: A qualitative study using a phenomenographic approach, based on open-ended interviews with 18 Child Health Care nurses (CHC-nurses) strategically selected from 17 Child Health Care Centres in the southern part of Sweden. Results: Four categories of description emerged from the data: Perception of childhood overweight changes, Overweight in younger children a neglected concern, Overweight a delicate issue and Importance of family lifestyle. The participating CHC-nurses conceived overweight in children, pri...
Child healthcare nurses’ encounters with parents whose child is overweight
Nordic Journal of Nursing Research, 2019
Nurses in the Swedish child healthcare system can make a difference by offering support to parents of children who are overweight or at risk of becoming so. Still, research concerning these nurses’ clinical practice when encountering parents whose child is overweight is inadequate. The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ clinical practice when encountering parents of an overweight child. Data were collected through interviews with 10 nurses, and a content analysis approach was used. The nurses’ clinical practice is described in relation to Olander’s theory: Individualising actions, Creating a dialogue, Documenting, and Focusing on normality. This study adds knowledge about nurses’ clinical practice in encounters with parents whose child is overweight. Also, it adds information on how an issue in a specific care situation may contribute to further understanding and use of an existing theory in caring science.
2016
To increase the understanding of difficulties in promoting healthy habits to parents, we explore barriers in health-care provision. The aim of this study is to describe nurses ’ perceived barriers when discussing with parents regarding healthy food habits, physical activity and their child’s body weight. A mixed method approach was chosen. Nurses (n 76) working at 29 different Child Health Care Centers ’ in an area in west Sweden were included in the study. Three focus group interviews were conducted and 17 nurses were selected according to maximum variation. Data were categorized and qualita-tive content analysis was the chosen analysis method. In the second method, data were obtained from a question-naire distributed to all 76 nurses. The latent content was formulated into a theme: even with encouragement and support, the nurses perceive barriers of both an external and internal nature. The results identified four main barriers: experienced barriers in the workplace—internal and e...
Frontiers in Public Health, 2021
In Romania, one in four children has excess weight. Because childhood obesity is a sensitive topic, many healthcare professionals find it difficult to discuss children's excess weight with parents. This study aims to identify barriers and facilitators in childhood obesity-related communication, as perceived by healthcare professionals in Romania. As part of the STOP project, healthcare professionals (family physicians, pediatricians, and dieticians) who treat children with excess weight were invited to a telephone interview. The semi-structured questions were translated from a questionnaire previously used at the Swedish study site of the STOP project. Interviews were transcribed and then used for thematic analysis. Fifteen doctors and three dieticians (16 females and 2 males), with average 18.2 ± 10.1 years of experience, were interviewed. Four main themes were identified. Professionals reported that when children began experiencing obesity-related stigma or comorbidities, this...
Swedish nurses encounter barriers when promoting healthy habits in children
SUMMARY To increase the understanding of difficulties in promoting healthy habits to parents, we explore barriers in health-care provision. The aim of this study is to describe nurses' perceived barriers when discussing with parents regarding healthy food habits, physical activity and their child's body weight. A mixed method approach was chosen. Nurses (n ¼ 76) working at 29 different Child Health Care Centers' in an area in west Sweden were included in the study. Three focus group interviews were conducted and 17 nurses were selected according to maximum variation. Data were categorized and qualitative content analysis was the chosen analysis method. In the second method, data were obtained from a questionnaire distributed to all 76 nurses. The latent content was formulated into a theme: even with encouragement and support, the nurses perceive barriers of both an external and internal nature. The results identified four main barriers: experienced barriers in the workplace—internal and external; the nurse's own fear and uncertainty; perceived obstacles in nurse– parent interactions and modern society impedes parents' ability to promote healthy habits. The nurses' perceived barriers were confirmed by the results from 62 of the nurses who completed the questionnaire. Despite education and professional support , the health professionals perceived both external and internal barriers in promoting healthy habits to parents when implementing a new method of health promotion in primary care. Further qualitative studies are needed to gain deeper understanding of the perceived barriers when promoting healthy habits to parents.
BMC Family Practice, 2012
Background: The recruitment of participants for childhood overweight and obesity prevention interventions can be challenging. The goal of this study was to identify barriers that Dutch youth health care (YHC) professionals perceive when referring parents of overweight children to an obesity prevention intervention. Methods: Sixteen YHC professionals (nurses, physicians and management staff) from eleven child health clinics participated in semi-structured interviews. An intervention implementation model was used as the framework for conducting, analyzing and interpreting the interviews. Results: All YHC professionals were concerned about childhood obesity and perceived prevention of overweight and obesity as an important task of the YHC organization. In terms of frequency and perceived impact, the most important impeding factors for referring parents of overweight children to an intervention were denial of the overweight problem by parents and their resistance towards discussing weight issues. A few YHC professionals indicated that their communication skills in discussing weight issues could be improved, and some professionals mentioned that they had low self-efficacy in raising this topic. Conclusions: We consider it important that YHC professionals receive more training to increase their self-efficacy and skills in motivating parents of overweight children to participate in obesity prevention interventions. Furthermore, parental awareness towards their child's overweight should be addressed in future studies.
The study reviewed the published research on nurses' knowledge and attitudes about children who are overweight/obese. A literature search of research published in English between 2000 and 2016 was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus and Google Scholar. A total of 5 papers met the inclusion criteria for this review with only one paper specifically discussing the attitudes of student nurses to childhood overweight/obesity. This review has shown that although there are very few articles on nurses' knowledge and attitudes to overweight/obese children, the papers included in the review demonstrate that nurses were generally lacking in knowledge about this issue.
BMC Public Health
Background Greater understanding about the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity in preschool children within public health care is needed. This study assessed the impact of The First Steps module in routine primary health care including mapping of height/weight and diet followed by parental counselling of healthy habits on overweight and obesity in children aged 2 to 7 years. Further, we explored the experiences of public health nurses (PHNs) with the module. Methods Body weight and height obtained in 2014 and 2016 were extracted retrospectively for 676 children from the health records of children at 2, 4, or 6 years of age in five child health centers in Southern Norway. Sex- and age-adjusted body mass index (BMI) z-scores and weight status classifications were calculated according to the International Obesity Task Force reference values. Impact was assessed as change in mean BMI z-scores for children with under-, normal-, and overweight, respectively, and as proporti...