Developing a weight-related co-morbidities screening tool
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing the weight-related co-morbidities screening tool for children and adolescents (aged 5-18): A Consensus Study Protocol
IRAS ID
188231
Contact name
Vishal Sharma
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 27 days
Research summary
Being overweight or very overweight puts people at risk of related physical and mental illnesses known as co-morbidities (e.g. type-II diabetes and depression). If untreated these illnesses pose a risk to the individual's well-being, and may increase NHS treatment costs. In 2013 19% of 10-11 year olds and 9% of 4-5 year olds were obese. Child/adolescent weight management services were set-up to support overweight/obese children and his/her parents lose excess weight. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends weight management services screen children for weight-related co-morbidities using an approved tool, refer the child for further tests and/or treatment if appropriate. However such a tool is not currently available.
This study is part of a PhD to develop and evaluate a tool that weight management service staff can use to screen children/adolescents for co-morbidities.
Using consensus methods (an approach where information from a number of sources is brought together for a group of people come to an agreement about a specific question) this study will get agreement from experts (clinicians, researchers and weight management service staff) and service users about which co-morbidities to include in the tool, and how to screen for the co-morbidities. The study consists of two cycles, each with 4 steps:
1. Experts complete a questionnaire rating whether a co-morbidity/assessment technique should be in the tool
2. Service users are asked if they agree with the experts’ initial views.
3. Experts are asked to discuss the co-morbidities along with the service users’ views/comments
4. Experts are asked to complete the questionnaire again, providing an opportunity to re-rate their scores.Cycle 1 will focus on the co-morbidities and Cycle 2 will focus on the assessment techniques for the agreed co-morbidities.
The results will lead onto the next stages of the PhD which look at the design and evaluation of the tool.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0457
Date of REC Opinion
12 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion