title: Increasing patient attendance in a pediatric obesity clinic: a quality improvement project.
abstract: Research supports intensive lifestyle interventions (>25 contact hours/six months) to treat childhood obesity. Success requires retention in program. This quality improvement project's purpose was to increase attendance of follow-up patients in a childhood obesity clinic by 10%. A pretest posttest design was used. Three months of baseline data were collected, followed by 52 weeks of intervention data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test. Follow-up patient attendance improved significantly from 69% to 81% (z=1.76, p=.039 (95% CI=0.2822, 1.0021)). Simple and inexpensive interventions can significantly increase attendance of obese children in follow-up.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, College of Nursing, Aurora, CO. Electronic address: betty.e.geer@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: Betty
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Geer
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Nutrition, Aurora, CO.
authors.forename: Renee M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Nutrition, Aurora, CO.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haemer
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, College of Nursing, Aurora, CO.
authors.forename: Marilyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Krajicek
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D058996:Quality Improvement
keywords: Childhood obesity; Follow-up; Improve attendance