Obesity, Childhood
Conditions
Keywords
risk communication
Brief summary
One-third of American children are overweight or obese, leading to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), early mortality, and other risks throughout their lifespan relative to normal weight children. In our pilot work, we found that 67-83% of parents underestimate a child's long-term risk of developing cardiovascular disease in adulthood and that parents thought their own child's risks were 13-15% lower than those of a typical child in their community, even controlling for family health and demographic characteristics. Parents were 40 times less likely to predict that their child, rather than a typical child in their community, would be overweight or obese in adulthood. These findings suggest that parents suffer from optimism bias, the tendency to overestimate one's chances of experiencing unlikely positive events. Belief that a child is at increased risk for adverse health outcomes in adulthood could be an important motivator for a family to initiate behavior changes and vice versa. The overall goal of this research is to develop provider-based risk communication approaches to motivate parents of obese children to engage in behavior change to protect their children from CVD and other obesity-related co-morbidities later in life. Specifically, the investigators will: 1. Develop risk communication methods that providers can use to better convey accurate information about a child's health behaviors, obesity status, and future health risks to parents. 2. Using an online experiment, we will evaluate the impact of new risk communication methods on parental engagement in behavior change. 3. Pilot test the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of new risk communication approaches in pediatric primary care clinics. This work will give pediatricians novel tools to effectively discuss the long-term consequences of childhood obesity with parents. The findings from this work will inform an interventional trial that will assess the impact of improved risk communication techniques on child behavior change and health outcomes.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALNovel risk communication
The investigators will develop novel risk communication messages to communicate the risks of childhood obesity to parents of children with obesity. The investigators will consider several novel approaches around message content and framing, but primarily, we propose using microsimulation models to forecast a child's long-term health risks, based on his age, race, gender, BMI, and family history of CVD.
Sponsors
Seattle Children's Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* must be a parent of a 5-12 year old child * child must be a patient at University of Washington Medical Center * child must have BMI at or above 95th percentile for age and sex * parent must have home or mobile internet access
Exclusion criteria
* None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency of logging meals in food diary | 7 days | Frequency of diet monitoring |
| Quality of food diary | 7 days | Quality of diet monitoring (i.e. recording 5 or more different foods per day) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Weight class perception (questionnaire) | 7 days | Does parent perceive child to be Underweight/About the right weight/Overweight/Obese |
| Anxiety (Perceived Stress Scale) | 7 days | Perceived Stress Scale |
| Concern about child health (CAHPS) | 7 days | In the last 6 months, did you have any questions or concerns about your child's health or health care? |
Contacts
Primary ContactDavene R Wright, PhD
Outcome results
None listed