Characteristics of child health care practitioners in overweight prevention of children.

Objectives: To identify behavioral and personal characteristics of child health care (CHC) practitioners that influences the effect of early overweight prevention in children.

Methods: In total 216 questionnaires were filled out by CHC practitioners from four organizations in the Netherlands.

Results: There is a gap between awareness of the problem overweight in early childhood and actually discussing this with parents, as well as a gap between the existing recommendations and the perceived importance of early overweight prevention.

The local implementation of a chronic disease management model for childhood overweight and obesity.

Background: The aim of this study is to determine opportunities and barriers regarding the management of overweight and obese children in daily practice, and to show the value of using focus groups when developing an action plan for childhood overweight management in a local context.

Methods: Seven focus groups and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 professionals from nine different care disciplines and 7 parents of overweight and obese children aged 4-19 years.

Results: After thorough analysis of the focus groups, issues concerning finding the most appropriate care and realising a long-term weight management in daily practice have become clear.

A local consensus process making use of focus groups to enhance the implementation of a national integrated health care standard on obesity care.

Background: Recent guidelines on obesity management promote integrated care. There is little knowledge about local opportunities and barriers, faced by health care professionals and patients, that affect implementation of an integrated national health care standard in a local setting. Our aim is to understand experiences and expectations of health care professionals and patients as part of the local implementation process.