The Pediatric Obesity Initiative: development, implementation, and evaluation

Purpose: Pediatric obesity rates have nearly tripled over the past three decades contributing to increased morbidity and mortality in the United States and around the world. Pediatric obesity is most prevalent in developed countries and affects all races, ethnicities, cultures, and age groups. To combat this epidemic locally, a team of dedicated providers developed a comprehensive evidenced-based toolkit and training program for clinical practices providing primary care services to children in a North Carolina county.

Data sources: The toolkit and training program were developed using the most current treatment guidelines for pediatric obesity and included resources developed by Healthy Carolinians. One unique feature of the training was a demonstration of motivational interviewing with additional resources included in the toolkit.

Conclusions: Staff and providers in three pediatric practices and the local Health Department received the training. In a 3 months follow-up survey after the training, the providers indicated that the toolkit and training program were useful but that they still did not consistently use the guidelines or tools.

Implications for practice: Ensuring the use of available guidelines and resources by providers remains a challenge. Further study is needed on how to improve implementation of guidelines in primary care settings.