Abstract
Parents are key to promoting children's healthy growth and development. However, school nurses need knowledge about how to best support parents' health-promoting activities. This study aimed to explore parents' thoughts regarding their normal-weight 6-year-old children's food and physical activity behaviors as expressed during health conversations with the school nurse. Qualitative content analysis of audio-recorded conversations (n = 30) showed that parents think of their children's behaviors in terms of: (a) children's personality in relation to food and physical activity; (b) recognizing children's food and physical activity behaviors; (c) parenting in relation to food and physical activity; (d) interaction with children in situations around food and physical activity; and (e) contextual circumstances to promote children's healthy food and physical activity behaviors. The study contributes with novel knowledge regarding clinical work in health promotion, with suggestions for how school nurses can engage parents in promoting and sustaining healthy food and physical activity behaviors.
Highlights
Childhood overweight and obesity is globally one of the major threats to public health, increasing the risk of noncommunicable diseases, and schools comprise important platforms for preventing and detecting risk factors for children’s unhealthy weight development (GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2016; World Health Organization, 2016)
This study used real-life audio-recorded health conversations with parents and school nurses from intervention schools participating in the Healthy School Start Plus (HSSP) trial (Elinder et al, 2018)
The analysis revealed five generic categories reflecting parents thoughts regarding children’s food and physical activity behaviors as expressed in conversations with school nurses: (a) children’s personality in relation to food and physical activity, (b) recognizing children’s food and physical activity behaviors, (c) parenting in relation to food and physical activity, (d) interaction with children in situations around food and physical activity, and (e) contextual circumstances to promote children’s healthy food and physical activity behaviors (Figure 1)
Summary
Childhood overweight and obesity is globally one of the major threats to public health, increasing the risk of noncommunicable diseases, and schools comprise important platforms for preventing and detecting risk factors for children’s unhealthy weight development (GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2016; World Health Organization, 2016). Inequality between population groups is widening, where a vast increase of prevalence in overweight and obesity is seen in children living in families with lower socioeconomic position (Moraeus et al, 2012, 2014). Health promotion has been on the global public health agenda for decades, with several charters emphasizing the importance of societies strengthening all individuals’ capacity to lead healthy lives as a fundamental human right (Nutbeam, 1998). The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates a whole systems approach to conquer childhood obesity and emphasizes the
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
