Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Obesity in the teenage years is difficult to manage successfully. In order to provide teens with the best care possible, we need to better understand how their lifestyle habits influence their weight and health. We also need to provide them and their health care providers (HCPs) with educational tools that can be used in clinical settings. My research includes two related studies. Study 1 (Part 1) is a qualitative study that includes 1-on-1 interviews with teens with obesity (n~30) from weight management clinics in Edmonton (English) and Ottawa (French). I will explore their perspectives on factors that make it easy or hard for them to maintain healthy lifestyle habits. Once collected, teens will prioritize these factors from most to least important, which I will use subsequently to develop a bilingual tool (TEENSAID) that HCPs can use in counseling teens with obesity (Part 2). Study 2 is designed to refine and pilot test TEENSAID via a one-group posttest only design. While waiting for their weight management appointment, teens from Edmonton and Ottawa will choose up to 3 barriers and/or enablers that are relevant to them. Next, teens will share their choices with their HCP during the appointment, which will include discussing their priorities and goal-setting to enable behaviour change. Both teens (n~30) and HCPs (n~10) will complete a survey after the appointment, which will include questions related to their perceived likeability, applicability, acceptability, and feasibility of TEENSAID. HCPs will also participate in focus groups (n=2) to gain richer insight. The results of these two studies will have a direct impact on what and how health services are offered to teens with obesity in Canada. Next steps of my thesis include testing the effectiveness of TEENSAID using a randomized controlled trial.