Parents experiences of weight management service for children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The lived experiences of parents and/or caregivers who have accessed NHS tier 3 weight management services for support to address their child's excess weight.
IRAS ID
348395
Contact name
Georgina Daniels
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Childhood obesity rates have risen over the past decade, with 22.1% of children aged 10-11 being obese in 2024. In their long-term plan, the NHS pledged to halve childhood obesity rates by 2030. To achieve this goal, the NHS commissioned tier 3 weight management services such as 'Complications of Excess Weight' (CEW) services, which support children living with obesity and their families in achieving healthy weight loss using a multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach. Existing research suggests that parents and caregivers often face stigma and experience feelings of guilt and shame following interactions with healthcare professionals, which serves as a potential barrier to accessing weight management services. To date, no study has explored how parents and caregivers overcome these barriers to access support for addressing their child’s obesity. The current study aims to fill this gap; additionally, it aims to explore the lived experiences of parents and caregivers who access weight management services for their children.
To accomplish this, parents and caregivers who either have accessed or are currently accessing NHS tier 3 weight management services for support in addressing their child’s obesity will be recruited via both social media and directly from NHS services to form the study sample. A semi-structured interview lasting approximately one hour will be conducted with each participant using an interpretive phenomenological analysis approach (IPA; Smith, 1996). These interviews will be transcribed and analyzed following the IPA protocol outlined by Pietkiewicz & Smith (2012) to provide detailed and subjective insights into the lived experience of each participant. Subsequently, the knowledge gained will help inform future practice, ensuring that services adapt and evolve based on direct patient experience, with the overarching goal of improving the quality of care that children living with obesity and their families receive from these services.REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
25/WA/0175
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jun 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion