Childhood Obesity Prevention and General Practice: A Mapping Review of Australian Clinical Resources

Issue Addressed

Preventing childhood obesity is a health promotion priority in Australia, and general practitioners (GP) play an important role through the provision of preventive healthcare. We identified and characterised existing Australian clinical resources which could support childhood obesity prevention in general practices to better understand resource availability and identify gaps to facilitate the planning of possible future interventions.

Methods

A mapping review was undertaken to find relevant clinical resources that focus on growth monitoring and/or promoting healthy behaviours relevant to children with a healthy weight. In this review, a ‘clinical resource’ is a resource for use in a patient consultation. All resources were independently assessed by two practising GP investigators for clinical use suitability. Additionally, the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) or an author-adapted Royal Australian College of General Practitioners tool was used to assess each resource as appropriate.

Results

One hundred and twenty resources were included. The target audience was children and/or their families for 114 resources, and GPs for six. GP involvement was found in the development of one resource. Overall, mean PEMAT scores indicated that many patient materials were understandable but poorly actionable.

Conclusions

There are many existing Australian resources relevant to childhood obesity prevention in general practice. Most are directed towards children and their families; however, quality assessment indicated improvements are needed to support action.

So What?

Partnering with GPs, children, and their families is an important next step to ensure that health-promoting clinical resources available for general practice are optimised for use.