Grant: Operating Grant

Before families (youth and parents) begin an intervention for managing obesity, health care professionals should assess their motivation to change lifestyle habits. This information can guide how and when an intervention is offered. However, there are currently no readily available processes for measuring motivation in families. Our research will address this limitation. The purpose of our 4-year study is to measure motivational factors in families initiating care at obesity management clinics at pediatric hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary. First, we will recruit 250 families (125 from Edmonton; 125 from Calgary) to test the reliability and validity of the new Readiness and Motivation Interview for Families (RMI-Family). This objective will tell us whether the interview can be administered consistently and if it accurately measures motivational factors, such as readiness, importance and confidence to change nutrition and physical activity habits. Second, we will use information collected from the same 250 families during the RMI-Family (along with other demographic [e.g., sex] and clinical [e.g., weight status] data) to examine the role of motivational factors in predicting clinical outcomes such as program dropout. Overall, this research will help us to develop a practical clinical tool that health care professionals can use to measure families' motivation and, most importantly, improve weight management care for youth with obesity and their families.