Ethical concerns include the possible unintended psychosocial consequences of intervention upon parents and children, such as stigmatisation, blame and parental guilt. However, there are practical and ethical issues associated with the use of risk prediction tools in clinical practice. The identification of these factors and the development of childhood overweight and obesity risk prediction tools – provide a tangible opportunity for early intervention.Effective communication of risk is an essential step in engaging parents in childhood obesity prevention. Systematic reviews have identified a number of factors in pregnancy and early infancy that are associated with an increased risk of overweight in childhood. The escalating prevalence of obesity in pre-school children is a growing global public health concern and early intervention is urgently required to reverse anticipated trends. BackgroundWorldwide, 42 million infants and young children are overweight or obese. The apparent level of parental responsibility, fear of judgement and self-blame also highlights the importance of health professionals approach to personalised risk communication so feelings of self-blame are negated and stigmatisation avoided. Identification of future obesity risk during infancy was viewed positively however the use of a non-judgemental communication style was viewed as imperative.ĭespite this positive response, findings suggest that parents’ acceptance to identification of risk and implementation of behaviour change is time specific. Parents were hesitant about health professionals identifying infant overweight as believed they would recognise this for themselves, in addition parents feared judgement from health professionals. ResultsThree main themes emerged from the data: 1) Identification of infant overweight and obesity risk. This study explores parents’ views on identifying future risk of childhood overweight and obesity during infancy and communicating risk to parents. Engaging parents of infants is paramount for success however the literature suggests there is uncertainty surrounding the use of such tools with concerns about stigmatisation, labelling and expressions of parental guilt. BackgroundRisk assessment tools provide an opportunity to prevent childhood overweight and obesity through early identification and intervention to influence infant feeding practices.
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