title: Barriers to successful recruitment of parents of overweight children for an obesity prevention intervention: a qualitative study among youth health care professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The recruitment of participants for childhood overweight and obesity prevention interventions can be challenging. The goal of this study was to identify barriers that Dutch youth health care (YHC) professionals perceive when referring parents of overweight children to an obesity prevention intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen YHC professionals (nurses, physicians and management staff) from eleven child health clinics participated in semi-structured interviews. An intervention implementation model was used as the framework for conducting, analyzing and interpreting the interviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All YHC professionals were concerned about childhood obesity and perceived prevention of overweight and obesity as an important task of the YHC organization. In terms of frequency and perceived impact, the most important impeding factors for referring parents of overweight children to an intervention were denial of the overweight problem by parents and their resistance towards discussing weight issues. A few YHC professionals indicated that their communication skills in discussing weight issues could be improved, and some professionals mentioned that they had low self-efficacy in raising this topic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We consider it important that YHC professionals receive more training to increase their self-efficacy and skills in motivating parents of overweight children to participate in obesity prevention interventions. Furthermore, parental awareness towards their child's overweight should be addressed in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion, and NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. sanne.gerards@maastrichtuniversity.nl
authors.forename: Sanne M P L
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Gerards
authors.forename: Pieter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dagnelie
authors.forename: Maria W J
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Nanne K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: De Vries
authors.forename: Stef P J
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Kremers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009426:Netherlands; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D050177:Overweight / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D018579:Patient Selection; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D020377:Self Efficacy; D000078329:Workforce