title: Engaging parents in child obesity prevention: support preferences of parents.
abstract: Helping parents engage in practices that are likely to prevent childhood obesity is a considerable challenge for health professionals, policy makers and researchers. The aim of the study was to determine who is likely to use services designed to help parents prevent overweight and obesity and what types of services they prefer. Two hundred and forty randomly selected parents of children 4-15 years from the Hunter New England region of New South Wales completed a 15 min telephone survey. Most parents would use a service to help them prevent obesity in their children but particularly parents of households from higher socioeconomic areas, female parents, parents of younger children and parents of children who are not consuming sufficient serves of fruits and vegetables, or are less active. Parents preferred personalised mailed print materials (85%), specialist appointments (61%) and emailed information (58%). Parents are interested in using a range of services to support them to encourage their children to eat healthily and be active. Researchers should test the efficacy of promising services.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia. wolfenden@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wolfenden
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiggers
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chipperfield
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D002662:Child Health Services; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D050177:Overweight / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010290:Parents; D057240:Patient Preference; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods*