title: Implementation and Evaluation of Two Educational Strategies to Improve Screening for Eating Disorders in Pediatric Primary Care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Routine screening for disordered eating or body image concerns is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We evaluated the ability of two educational interventions to increase screening for eating disorders in pediatric primary care practice, predicting that the "active-learning" group would have an increase in documented screening after intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 303 practitioners in a large independent practice association located in the northeastern United States. We used a quasi-experimental design to test the effect of printed educational materials ("print-learning" group, n = 280 participants) compared with in-person shared learning followed by on-line spaced education ("active-learning" group, n = 23 participants) on documented screening of adolescents for eating disorder symptoms during preventive care visits. A subset of 88 participants completed additional surveys regarding knowledge of eating disorders, comfort screening for, diagnosing, and treating eating disorders, and satisfaction with their training regarding eating disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the preintervention period, 4.5% of patients seen by practitioners in both the print-learning and active-learning groups had chart documentation of screening for eating disorder symptoms or body image concerns. This increased to 22% in the active-learning group and 5.7% in the print-learning group in the postintervention period, a statistically significant result. Compared with print-learning participants, active-learning group participants had greater eating disorder knowledge scores, increases in comfort diagnosing eating disorders, and satisfaction with their training in this area.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In-person shared learning followed by on-line spaced education is more effective than print educational materials for increasing provider documentation of screening for eating disorders in primary care.
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: holly.gooding@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Holly C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Gooding
authors.affiliation: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cheever
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sara F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Forman
authors.affiliation: Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hatoun
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Boston Children's Hospital, Brookline, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Farah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jooma
authors.affiliation: Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Currie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Touloumtzis
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Boston Children's Hospital, Brookline, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vernacchio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000592:standards; D058996:Quality Improvement; D057566:Self Report; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescent; Eating disorder; Screening