Developing and Pilot Testing the Readiness and Motivation Interview for Families in Pediatric Weight Management

Can J Diet Pract Res. 2015 Dec;76(4):190-3. doi: 10.3148/cjdpr-2015-024. Epub 2015 Aug 17.

Abstract

Clinical acumen is often used to assess families' motivation prior to initiating pediatric obesity management due to a lack of available tools. The purpose of this pilot study was to (i) develop and (ii) pilot test the "Readiness and Motivation Interview for Families" (RMI-Family) in pediatric weight management. We conducted 5 focus groups with parents (n = 15), youth with obesity (n = 11), and health care providers (n = 8) to explore perceptions of barriers to making healthy behaviour changes, which led to the creation of the RMI-Family as a semi-structured interview. Five domains (treat foods, overeating, emotional eating, total physical activity, and screen time) emerged from the focus groups to inform the development of the RMI-Family, which was then pilot tested with a sample of youth with obesity and their parents (n = 11 dyads). Interviewers administered the RMI-Family to youth (age 12.8 ± 1.7 years; body mass index [BMI] z-score: 2.71 ± 0.43) and parents (age 47.1 ± 3.7 years; BMI: 33.5 ± 10.1 kg/m(2)). The RMI-Family was feasible to administer, easily understood by families, and may be a useful tool for assessing families' motivation. Research is underway to determine the psychometric properties and utility of the RMI-Family in predicting clinical outcomes in pediatric weight management.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Body Mass Index
  • Child
  • Exercise
  • Feeding Behavior*
  • Female
  • Focus Groups
  • Health Behavior
  • Humans
  • Interviews as Topic*
  • Life Style
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motivation*
  • Parents
  • Pediatric Obesity / prevention & control
  • Pediatric Obesity / psychology*
  • Pilot Projects
  • Reproducibility of Results