Primary healthcare professionals' role in monitoring infant growth: A scoping review.
Chris Rossiter, Heilok Cheng, Elizabeth Denney-Wilson
PMID 36963017WHAT IT FOUND
Primary care clinicians measure infant weight routinely but rarely interpret growth charts, discuss weight with parents, or intervene for excess weight gain.
Confidence in identifying risk is low, and actions for infants under two are often absent despite known obesity risks.
Key findings
01Although most primary care clinicians measure infant weight, few use growth charts to interpret trajectories or identify risk of overweight, and documentation is often incomplete.
02Clinicians report low confidence in advising parents on infant weight and often delay or avoid discussing excess weight gain until after 12 or 24 months.
03There is little evidence of specific interventions for infants with unhealthy weight gain, with some studies showing no evaluation or action taken even when measurements indicated risk.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included a diverse range of study designs and populations, making it difficult to synthesise results or compare practices across different health professions or countries. Many of the included studies were dated, with some published in the early 2000s, which may not reflect current guidelines or clinical practices. The review focused on high-income countries, so findings may not apply to other settings. No quality assessment was conducted, so the strength of evidence for individual findings varies. Studies that did not stratify results by child age were excluded, potentially overlooking relevant information.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that measuring an infant's weight is sufficient for growth monitoring. The review shows that measurement is common, but interpretation of growth charts and subsequent action for unhealthy weight gain are rare. A clinician who records weight but does not plot it, interpret the trajectory, or discuss it with parents is not effectively monitoring growth according to the evidence presented.