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Nurse practitioner attitudes and treatment practices for childhood overweight: how do rural and urban practitioners
1University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado 80639, USA. karen.hessler@unco.edu
Insights
Nurse practitioners (NPs) recognize pediatric overweight and obesity as significant issues but underdiagnose and undertreat them, especially in rural areas. Enhanced education and resources are crucial for NPs to effectively manage this epidemic.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatric Medicine
- Nursing Practice
Background:
- Pediatric overweight and obesity represent a national epidemic, significantly impacting child health outcomes.
- Nurse practitioners (NPs) frequently encounter overweight and obese pediatric patients in their clinical practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate nurse practitioner (NP) attitudes towards pediatric overweight and obesity.
- To explore current NP diagnosis and treatment practices for pediatric overweight and obesity.
- To examine differences in practices and attitudes between rural and urban NPs.
Main Methods:
- A survey was distributed to 1088 family and pediatric NPs from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners membership.
- The study sample exclusively included family and pediatric NPs.
Main Results:
- NPs acknowledged pediatric overweight and obesity as treatable conditions but reported suboptimal assessment and diagnosis rates aligning with current guidelines.
- Initiation of treatment for pediatric overweight and obesity was reported at very low frequencies.
- Rural NPs reported significantly fewer available referral resources compared to their urban counterparts.
Conclusions:
- NPs are strategically positioned to improve pediatric overweight and obesity assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.
- Findings indicate a need for enhanced NP education regarding pediatric overweight and obesity management.
- Disparities in referral resources for rural NPs necessitate targeted strategies to improve obesity treatment delivery in these settings.
Purpose:
Pediatric overweight and obesity has become an epidemic problem of our nation. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are exposed to overweight pediatric patients on a regular basis. The purpose of this study was to investigate NP attitudes toward pediatric overweight and obesity and explore their current diagnosis and treatment practices. Differences between rural and urban NPs were also investigated.
Data Sources:
Survey data were gathered from 1088 family and pediatric NPs from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners member list randomly. Only family and pediatric NPs were included in the sample.
Conclusions:
NPs in the sample believed that pediatric overweight and obesity are problems in need of treatment, but also reported not assessing and diagnosing the condition per current guidelines. Initiation of treatment was reported at very low rates. Rural NPs reported having fewer referral resources than urban NPs.
Implications For Practice:
NPs are in an ideal position to properly assess, diagnose, and treat pediatric overweight and obesity. The findings suggest that more education on these topics is necessary for NPs. Rural NPs reported fewer referral services, and may need to have more knowledge about how to provide obesity treatment services in their own practice settings due to this disparity.
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