Talking About Weight With Families-Helping Health Care Professionals Start the Conversation: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.

Health care professionals (HCPs) and trainees feel ill-equipped to discuss weight-related issues with children and their families. A whiteboard video for HCPs and trainees outlining strategies to communicate about weight was developed and evaluated. Seventy HCPs, including 15 trainees, participated in the baseline assessment and 39 repeated measures 4 to 6 months later. HCP self-efficacy for initiating conversations with overweight and underweight patients, measured immediately following the video, significantly improved from pre-video values ( = -5.6, ≤ .001, and Z= -3.3, = .001, respectively). Although improvements were not sustained 4 to 6 months later (overweight: = .143, and underweight: = .846), no significant decline was observed, suggesting retention of the skill. A majority of HCP respondents would recommend the video to a colleague and feel it will affect their practice. Thus, the present study suggests educational videos may be an effective tool for facilitating healthy weight-related conversations between HCPs and their pediatric patients.