Communication tools used in childhood obesity discussions: A scoping review

Paediatric healthcare professionals (HCPs) play an essential role in the prevention and management of childhood obesity; however, many report considerable barriers to having weight-related conversations, including a lack of confidence. One way to address this is to use communication tools, such as charts, pictures and handouts. This scoping review's objective was to identify the extent and nature of available tools in the published literature that aimed to support HCPs in having positive weight-related conversations with children and families.

CINAHL, Medline and PsycINFO were systematically searched from 2005 to 2019. Articles were selected based on (a) use of an identified communication tool; (b) tool designed for use with children between the ages of 2 and 18 and/or their parents; (c) tool designed to be used in weight-related discussions; and (d) tool designed to be used by HCPs in a formal healthcare setting.

Of the 3,596 articles yielded after deduplication, 13 unique communication tools were identified. Tools were grouped according to three themes: (a) help communicate child's weight status; (b) provide a communication framework for HCPs; and (c) actively engage children and/or parents in discussions. Many of the tools were recently developed and had not been evaluated in clinical practice. The clinical utility of each tool was evaluated.

This study identified 13 communication tools HCPs could use when having weight-related discussions. However, there was a lack of evaluation and clinical utility. Only one tool had high clinical utility, and not all tools would be recommended for use in practice.