Delaware Primary Care Initiative on Childhood Overweight

Through the Delaware Primary Care Initiative on Childhood Overweight, Nemours Health and Prevention Services has sparked change among primary care providers in the way they address childhood overweight in their practices. 

Goals of Primary Care Initiative

• Equip health care providers with knowledge and skills to better prevent, identify, and manage childhood overweight.
• Contribute to a statewide effort to reduce the threat of childhood obesity among Delaware children.

Benefits to Practices

Participating teams learn how to apply knowledge and skills in their clinical setting to address childhood overweight and obesity. To help with this process, practices receive:

• Training
  Providers attend quarterly learning sessions to implement best practices. Content of the trainings are developed from new recommendations of the Expert Committee on the Assessment, Prevention and Management of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity
• Support
  Providers receive on-site technical assistance from Nemours staff, as needed. Technical assistance may include assistance using tools, building a team within the practice, using motivational interviewing, and integrating into the community.

Benefits to Patients

• Help patients set goals
  Providers help patients set small manageable goals for behavior changes. Common incremental changes providers have seen include increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, reductions in screentime, and decreases in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Regularly monitor BMI
  By regularly plotting BMI, providers help their patients and parents understand when they are overweight or obese. Providers report that patients are more likely to accept the need for change when they see their BMI percentile plotted on national curves.