How can we help parents recognise unhealthy body weight in their children?

我们如何帮助父母认识到孩子不健​​康的体重？

• 批准号: MR/J00054X/1
• 负责人: Ashley Adamson
• 金额: $ 62.75万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FJ00054X%2F1
• 关键词: How; help; parents; recognise; unhealthy

Childhood obesity is an important public health problem worldwide and identifying effective preventive strategies remains a priority. Parents are central to the development of their child's health-related behaviours and play a key role in both the development and implementation of prevention strategies. However, many studies show that parents do not recognise when their child is overweight compared with guidance on healthy body weights for children. For example, our previous NPRI funded work showed that over 2/3rdsof parents of overweight children described their child as being of 'normal weight' at 7 years. Evidence indicates that parents tend to use how their children look compared with others who may be more overweight to identify their weight status. Thus in the context of a high prevalence of childhood overweight, this means that parents rely on extreme cases as a reference point and a shift in their understanding of what 'overweight' means is likely to have occurred.Addressing the difference between parents' perceptions and actual child weight status is important. If parents do not perceive their child as overweight they are unlikely to make appropriate changes to their child's lifestyle. However there is evidence that parents are more likely to make such changes if they perceive their child's weight as being a health problem. So increasing parents' knowledge of what an OW child does look like, plus increasing their knowledge about the health consequences of childhood overweight is a strategy worth exploring.The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) currently measures weight status in all Reception and Year 6 children. Parents are informed of the results by letter but anecdotal evidence suggests that the letters are often not well received and do not to promote appropriate action. Another common method of monitoring children's growth is the use of growth charts, but their usefulness is questionable because it is unclear whether the general population understands them.This multistage study aims to address the need for improving strategies for informing parents about their child's weight status. It will develop and test tools to improve parents' ability to correctly assess their child's weight status (in line with NCMP criteria) as well to increase their knowledge of the health consequences of childhood overweight.Body image scales are visual images of body shapes ranging from underweight to obese. Existing body image scales do not correspond to any cut-offs for overweight commonly used in the UK such as those employed by the NCMP. In stage 1 we will use portable 3D body scanning technology to obtain body scans from 800 children. The body scans will be used to produce age and gender specific body image scales for Reception and Year 6 aged children. In stage 2 parents will be consulted extensively to further develop the body image scales as a method to improve parents' ability to recognise overweight in children and to develop supporting information to increase parental knowledge of the consequences of childhood overweight. Two methods of delivering the tool will be developed (paper based and web based). In stage 3 a feasibility study of the tool, supporting information, and the two methods of delivery will be conducted. Parents' views and experiences of the developed methods will be sought by conducting focus groups and the findings will be used to improve all aspects. Finally, in stage 4, a cluster randomised control trial will be conducted with 2040 families to test whether the tool is effective and which method of delivery is most effective in improving parental recognition of childhood overweight and understanding of its consequences.Policy and practitioner partners in the study team will ensure that the study outputs are directly transferable to practice and will support the work of the National Obesity Observatory and NHS Choices.

儿童肥胖是全世界一个重要的公共卫生问题，确定有效的预防战略仍然是一个优先事项。父母对儿童健康相关行为的发展起着核心作用，在制定和实施预防战略方面发挥着关键作用。然而，许多研究表明，与儿童健康体重指南相比，父母没有意识到他们的孩子何时超重。例如，我们之前的NPRI资助的工作表明，超过三分之二的超重儿童的父母称他们的孩子在7岁时体重正常。有证据表明，父母倾向于用他们的孩子与其他可能更超重的孩子相比的样子来确定他们的体重状况。因此，在儿童超重高发的背景下，这意味着父母依赖极端案例作为参考点，并且他们对“超重”含义的理解可能已经发生转变。解决父母的看法和孩子实际体重状况之间的差异是很重要的。如果父母没有意识到他们的孩子超重，他们就不太可能对孩子的生活方式做出适当的改变。然而，有证据表明，如果父母认为孩子的体重是一个健康问题，他们更有可能做出这样的改变。因此，增加父母对OW儿童长相的了解，以及增加他们对儿童超重健康后果的了解，是一个值得探索的策略。国家儿童测量计划（NCMP）目前测量所有幼儿园和六年级儿童的体重状况。家长通过信件得知结果，但坊间证据表明，这些信件通常不受欢迎，也没有促进适当的行动。另一种监测儿童生长的常用方法是使用生长图表，但其实用性值得怀疑，因为不清楚普通大众是否理解这些图表。这个多阶段的研究旨在解决需要改进的策略，告知父母有关他们的孩子的体重状况。它将开发和测试工具，以提高父母正确评估儿童体重状况的能力（符合NCMP标准），并增加他们对儿童超重健康后果的认识。身体形象量表是身体形状的视觉图像，范围从体重不足到肥胖。现有的身体形象量表不符合英国常用的任何超重临界值，比如英国国家医学中心（NCMP）所采用的标准。在第一阶段，我们将使用便携式3D身体扫描技术对800名儿童进行身体扫描。身体扫描将用于为接收和六年级儿童制作年龄和性别特定的身体形象量表。在第二阶段，我们将广泛咨询家长，进一步发展身体形象量表，以提高家长识别儿童超重的能力，并发展支持信息，以增加家长对儿童超重后果的认识。将开发两种交付工具的方法（基于纸张和基于网络）。在第三阶段，将对工具、支持信息和两种交付方法进行可行性研究。我们会进行焦点小组讨论，收集家长对已发展方法的意见和经验，并利用调查结果改善各方面。最后，在第四阶段，将对2040个家庭进行一项随机对照试验，以测试该工具是否有效，以及哪种分娩方式在提高父母对儿童超重的认识和对其后果的理解方面最有效。研究团队的政策和从业者合作伙伴将确保研究成果可直接转移到实践中，并将支持国家肥胖观察站和NHS选择的工作。

项目成果

Development of the MapMe intervention body image scales of known weight status for 4-5 and 10-11 year old children.

• DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdx129
• 发表时间: 2018-09-01
• 期刊: Journal of public health (Oxford, England)
• 作者: Jones AR;Tovée MJ;Cutler LR;Parkinson KN;Ells LJ;Araujo-Soares V;Pearce MS;Mann KD;Scott D;Harris JM;Adamson AJ
• 通讯作者: Adamson AJ

A Randomised Control Trial Investigating the Efficacy of the MapMe Intervention on Parental Ability to Correctly Categorise Overweight in Their Child and the Impact on Child BMI Z-Score Change at 1 Year.

• DOI: 10.3390/children10091577
• 发表时间: 2023-09-21
• 期刊: Children (Basel, Switzerland)

A cluster randomised trial testing an intervention to improve parents' recognition of their child's weight status: study protocol.

• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-015-1882-3
• 发表时间: 2015-06-12
• 期刊: BMC public health
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Parkinson KN;Jones AR;Tovee MJ;Ells LJ;Pearce MS;Araujo-Soares V;Adamson AJ
• 通讯作者: Adamson AJ