Swedish Child Health Care nurses conceptions of overweight in children: a qualitative study

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Ann-Cathrine Bramhagen¹  Margareta Östman¹  Anna-Karin Dykes²  Gabriella E Isma³  Gerd Ahlstrom⁴ 

[1] Department of Health Care Sciences, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden;Department of Health Care Sciences, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden;Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Department of Health Care Sciences, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden;The Swedish Institute for Health Sciences (Vårdalinstitutet), Lund University, Lund, Sweden;The Swedish Institute for Health Sciences (Vårdalinstitutet), Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;

关键词: Child;    Conceptions;    Nurses;    Overweight;    Perceptions;    Primary health care;    Qualitative research;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-13-57

 received in 2012-02-15, accepted in 2012-06-14,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRegistered Sick Children’s Nurses and District Nurses employed at Child Health Care centres are in a position to help prevent childhood overweight and obesity. Prevention of this challenging public health threat could be improved through having a better understanding of how this group of nurses perceives childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to elucidate the conceptions of childhood overweight, including obesity, among nurses working in Child Health Care.MethodA qualitative study using a phenomenographic approach, based on open-ended interviews with 18 Child Health Care nurses (CHC-nurses) strategically selected from 17 Child Health Care Centres in the southern part of Sweden.ResultsFour categories of description emerged from the data: Perception of childhood overweight changes, Overweight in younger children a neglected concern, Overweight a delicate issue and Importance of family lifestyle. The participating CHC-nurses conceived overweight in children, primarily obesity in children to be an extensive and serious problem which affects children, families and the surrounding society. Overweight in children was further perceived as a consequence of their parent’s lifestyle and their awareness of the problem, which was considered by the CHC-nurses as a sensitive and a provoking issue. It was also perceived that overweight in children is not taken seriously during the pre-school period and that concerns regarding overweight in younger children were mainly about the appearance and not the health of the child. The CHC-nurses perceived that the proportion of overweight children has increased, which Swedish society and the CHC-nurses have adapted to. This adaptation makes it difficult for CHC-nurses to define those children who are overweight.ConclusionCHC-nurses provide a comprehensive and complex picture of childhood overweight, which includes several difficulties dealing with this issue. Attention to CHC-nurse’s conceptions of overweight in children is important since it can affect the parent-nurse relationship and thereby the nurse’s, as well as the parent’s efforts to influence the children’s weight. It is suggested that CHC- nurses should work with person centered counseling and empowerment concerning parent to child relations in cases involving overweight.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Isma et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.