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Using motivational interviewing for weight feedback to parents of young children
Author(s) -
Dawson Anna M,
Brown Deirdre A,
Cox Adell,
Williams Sheila M,
Treacy Lee,
Haszard Jill,
MeredithJones Kim,
Hargreaves Elaine,
Taylor Barry J,
Ross Jim,
Taylor Rachael W
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/jpc.12518
Subject(s) - medicine , motivational interviewing , overweight , percentile , intervention (counseling) , body mass index , confidence interval , physical therapy , clinical psychology , family medicine , pediatrics , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics
Aim To determine whether a single session of motivational interviewing ( MI ) for feedback of a child's overweight status promotes engagement in treatment following screening. Methods One thousand ninety‐three children aged 4–8 years were recruited through primary and secondary care to attend health screening, including assessment of parenting practices and motivation (questionnaire). Families with normal‐weight children were informed about their child's weight but had no further involvement. Parents of overweight (body mass index ≥85th percentile) children ( n = 271) were randomised to receive weight feedback via MI or best practice care ( BPC ) using a traffic light concept to indicate degree of health risk. Follow‐up interviews were held 2 weeks later to examine intervention uptake, changes to motivation and behaviour, and parental response to feedback. Results Recruitment into the intervention was high (76%) and not altered by feedback condition (percentage difference 6.6 (95% confidence interval −2.9, 16.0). High scores on the H ealth C are C limate Q uestionnaire (rating of the interviewer) indicated satisfaction with how the information was provided to parents. No differences were observed in multiple indicators of harm. However, self‐determined motivation for healthy life‐styles was significantly higher in the MI condition at follow‐up (0.18: 0.00, 0.35), after only a single session of MI . Conclusions MI and BPC were both successful in encouraging parents to participate in a family‐based intervention, with MI offering little significant benefit over BPC . A traffic light approach to weight feedback is a suitable way of providing sensitive information to parents not expecting such news.