A Policy for Change, Health Education and Childhood Obesity Prevention

Purpose/

Objectives: The purpose of this project was to assist the healthcare providers to use EBP to educate and treat their patient population of overweight and obese children in a sustainable method.  The project outcomes included creating a policy for providers to assist with educating and treating overweight and obese children, creating a policy that assisted providers with treating overweight and obese children, implemented a policy in an accessible method, implement policy in a sustainable method, and positively affect the healthcare provider’s patient population.

Design/Methods: A policy was created for the local area community healthcare clinics based on the AAP’s Algorithm for assessment and management of childhood obesity in patients 2 years old or older.  The algorithm implemented the EBP into the organization.  The policy was customized to the community health clinics’ unique population of culturally diverse, lower socioeconomic status, under-insured, uninsured, and under-served patient population of overweight and obese children ages 2-years-old to 19-years-old.  This policy was then adapted into the organization’s EHR.  Once the policy adaptation was complete an educational session was conducted for the healthcare providers.  Three evaluative surveys were conducted to assess the providers’ understanding and need for a policy, to assess how the policy implementation was working and if there were any barriers identified and how that providers felt the policy and policy implementation performed and assisted their patient population.

Results: Overall results were that out of 35 providers 21 providers participated in the first formative survey (60% completion), 22 providers participated in the second formative survey (62.86% completion), and 13 providers participated in the third summative survey (30.77%).  The summative results concluded that 81.82% of providers felt the policy helped educate children, 90.91% of providers felt the policy assisted with providing consistent care, 100% of the providers felt that having policy in EHR made following and documenting care easier, 90.91% of providers found the policy in the EHR valuable to practice, and 27.27% of the providers notice a reduction in patient’s BMI.  It is important to note that this evaluative window occurred over approximately an 8-week period, so the reduction of BMI noted is understandable.  Additionally, providers comments from the third summative survey included that they had limited in-person visits, that there were no patient follow-ups yet, and there was evidence of BMI’s not increasing over this period.

Conclusion/

Discussion:  Implementation of EBP in the form of a policy and policy implementation for treating and educating overweight and obese children, showed to be effective in assisting providers and provider’s patient populations.  The use of EBP and a policy could significantly improve practices that do not have this in place already.  This project occurred during the COVID-19 and potentially has larger implications during non-pandemic conditions.