Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Designing and Testing the Feasibility of a Multi-level Intervention to Treat Adolescent Obesity in the Pediatric Primary Care Setting

¹Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School,55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA

²Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA

³Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA

⁴Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Health System
1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, 48109, USA

⁵Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Lori Pbert
Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA
Tel: 508-856-3515
Fax: 508-856-3840
E-mail: Lori.Pbert@umassmed.edu

Received Date: February 14, 2014; Accepted Date: March 18, 2015; Published Date: March 23, 2015

Citation: Pbert L, Wang ML, Druker S, Jackson EA, Rosal MC (2015) Designing and Testing the Feasibility of a Multi-level Intervention to Treat Adolescent Obesity in the Pediatric Primary Care Setting. J Child Adolesc Behav 3:196. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000196

Copyright: © 2015 Pbert L, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: To describe the development steps and feasibility test of a multi-level adolescent obesity intervention for delivery in pediatric primary care settings. Method: To understand the target setting and population (i.e., perceptions of and receptivity to various intervention components), focus groups were conducted with clinicians, adolescents, and parents (N=58). Findings informed the development of a multi-level intervention (i.e., office support systems, brief clinician-delivered counseling, and nutritionist-led adolescent group sessions) targeting overweight and obese adolescents (N=22). The intervention was pilot-tested for feasibility using a single group pre- and post-test comparison. Results: Families and clinicians agreed on the importance of developing approaches to address adolescent obesity in the pediatric primary care setting, and favored family involvement. The pilot-study showed that it was feasible to implement office system changes to support obesity treatment. All but one component of the cliniciandelivered counseling algorithm were feasible. Adolescents participating in the intervention reported dietary improvements and movement toward the action stage for decreasing sedentary behavior. Conclusion: Multi-level interventions for adolescent obesity in the pediatric primary care setting are feasible. Research to test the effectiveness of such interventions is warranted.

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