Pediatric Weight Management in Primary Care Practice

Abstract

Background: In the United States 13.9% of children between the ages of 2 to 5 years old are considered to be obese (CDC, 2018a). It is crucial for primary care pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs) to screen, educate, treat and implement evidence-based interventions to decrease pediatric obesity rates. Purpose: This project examined parent and guardian knowledge of pediatric obesity and weight management behaviors, before and after a pediatric obesity education intervention. Method: An evidence-based educational intervention regarding pediatric obesity and weight management behaviors was delivered after well-child and post condition well-child follow-up visits, at a small, private medical practice. The data was collected using a pre- and post-test survey to assess parent and guardian knowledge before and after the educational intervention. Aim: To increase knowledge among parents or guardians with a child between the ages of 2 to 5 years old, using evidence-based obesity management recommendations. Results: Two-tailed paired t-tests (parametric); percentages, means, and standard deviation (SD) were used to analyze the data. Demographic data was analyzed by counting the number of participants (N=9) who chose each category. Overall post scores were not significantly different; however, eight of the nine participants increased their scores with an average increase of 29%. Conclusion: The results of the project indicate parents and guardians are able to increase their understanding of pediatric obesity and level of confidence in implementing weight management practices, with a 10-minute educational intervention during well child or post condition well-child follow-up visits. Therefore, the results stress the importance of PNPs providing families with obesity prevention information to aid in their understanding of pediatric obesity and what they can do to prevent and manage this in their child.