Development and feasibility of an objective measure of patient-centered communication fidelity in a pediatric obesity intervention

Abstract

Objective: To develop a measure of person-centered communication (PCC) and demonstrate feasibility for use in primary care child obesity interventions.

Methods: Helping Healthy Activity and Nutrition Directions was a primary care intervention for families of overweight or obese 5- to 8-year-old children. The PCC Coding System (PCCCS) was based on theory and a validated motivational interviewing instrument. The PCCCS provided global scores, and total, positive, and negative PCC utterance frequencies. Three trained coders tested reliability of the PCCCS on audio recordings of sessions with 30 families. Potential uses of the PCCCS were demonstrated.

Results: The PCCCS demonstrated good inter-rater reliability for utterance frequencies but not for global scores.

Conclusions and implications: The PCCCS is a reliable and feasible measure of PCC utterances. More research is needed to improve inter-rater reliability of the PCC global scale. The PCCCS may be used in the future to test fidelity of PCC interventions.