Addressing Childhood Overweight and Obesity with Brief Health Education

Background Childhood obesity is frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated across many healthcare systems due to obstacles and delayed guideline development. Local Problem or Aim Statement To implement a brief tool to increase provider documentation of childhood obesity and to improve healthy habits among pediatric patients. Methods This project was guided by the Revised Iowa Model and additionally utilized one Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle in a Nebraska pediatric clinic, implemented over 12 weeks. Interventions An educational intervention was provided at well-child visits. A tool was identified for providers to screen for children with overweight or obesity. A method was created for providers to document intervention use. Results The observed documentation percentage did not differ significantly from an external comparison percentage. All 28 survey respondents (36% response rate) reported improvement in at least one health habit. Conclusions Although a brief educational intervention may not improve provider compliance in documenting childhood obesity, it may support self-reported health habit improvement among respondents; however, the low response rate limits interpretation.