Child Health Service Nurses' Experiences of Providing Support to Parents With Overweight During Clinical Encounters About Their Child's Overweight-a Qualitative Study.
Julia Lindblom, Elzana Odzakovic, Eric A Hodges and 2 others
PMID 41358567WHAT IT FOUND
Child health nurses described struggling to balance professional responsibility with fear of damaging relationships.
They often focused on weight curves and lifestyle advice while avoiding emotional topics. Some expressed distrust of parents' abilities and used threats to force change.
Key findings
01Nurses felt a conflict between maintaining a good relationship with parents and their duty to address the child's weight, often fearing that raising the topic would damage trust.
02To avoid emotional conversations, nurses focused on measurable data like weight curves and gave concrete lifestyle advice, sometimes persisting even when parents were reluctant.
03Some nurses distrusted parents' accounts of family lifestyle and abilities, attributing parental overweight to weakness, and occasionally used threats of child welfare reports to pressure parents.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study only included nurses, so it does not capture the parents' perspective or experiences. Participants were recruited via social media and voluntary response, which may mean those with a stronger interest in the topic or more negative experiences were overrepresented. All participants were women, and they came from only six of Sweden's 22 regions, limiting the diversity of geographic and professional backgrounds. Interviews were conducted digitally, which may have affected the depth of rapport and the ability to pick up on non-verbal cues.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the nurses' distrust and use of threats as standard or accepted practice. The authors highlight these behaviours as concerning outcomes of weight stigma and professional insecurity, not as recommended clinical strategies.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →