My thesis project at George Mason University on how childhood obesity can be prevented or reduced through parent-provider communication using a social marketing approach.

1. PREVENTING CHILDHOOD
OBESITY THROUGH PARENT-
PROVIDER COMMUNICATION:
A SOCIAL MARKETING
APPROACH
Kristina Ticknor
George Mason University

2. Agenda
 Introduction to Literature
 Healthy People 2020 Recommendations
 What is social marketing?
 Importance of product and place
 Methods
 Semi-structured interviews
 Grounded theory
 Results
 Discussion
 Limitations
 Ethical Implications
 Future Research

3. Introduction to Literature
Healthy People 2020
What is social marketing?
Importance of product and place

4. HHS’s Health People 2020
 Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents who are
overweight or obese
 Prevent inappropriate weight gain in youth and adults
 Increase the variety and contribution of fruit and vegetables
 Increase the proportion of children and adolescents that meet
guidelines for television viewing and computer use
 Increase the proportion of adolescents that meet current
physical activity guidelines
 Increase the proportion of physician offices visits related to
nutrition or weight
 Increase the proportion of persons who report that their
health care providers have satisfactory communication
skills
 Increase the proportion of health communication activities
that include research and evaluation

5. The Social Marketing Approach
 Balanced relationship between authority and
public
 Consumer-focused communication
 Emphasizes barriers and benefits
 Centered around a product or service
 The easy, fun, popular thing to do!
 The 4 “P’s” of the Marketing Mix:
 Product
 Place
 Price
 Promotion

6. Importance of Product & Place
 Product
 Tangible package of benefits
 Helps effectively visualize the
change
 Added benefit to encourage
change
 Place
 Where the product or service
is made available
 Social, physical and cultural
environment
 Provide context of opportunity
free from restraint
 Expand focus beyond
individual’s motivation
 “People and Places”
framework

7. Methods
Research questions
Qualitative approach
Grounded theory

8. Research Questions
1. What are the perceived barriers and
benefits pediatric clinicians face when
communicating issues of childhood obesity
with parents of patients how are overweight
or obese?
2. What content and messages do physicians
perceive to be the most effective in explaining
obesity issues to parents of young children?
3. What style of visual aid could be created to
highlight the most relevant issues faced by
clinicians in explaining obesity to children?

9. Qualitative Approach
 Method: semi-structured phone interviews
 Participants: 10 health care providers in
pediatrics or family practice
 Analysis: grounded theory
 Continuously identifying new categories (open
coding)
 Theme and topics mutually exclusive and
exhaustive
 Examine relationships between themes (axial
coding)

10. Results
Meta-themes and themes
Implementation of recommendations

11. Meta-Themes & Themes
Communication, Recommendations
Health and Fitness
Sociology & and Suggestions for
Psychology Tool
 BMI, Fitness and  Motivation,  Positive
Readiness and Feedback
Growth Charts Confidence
 Nutrition and  Socio-Ecological  General
Fitness Factors Recommendatio
 Disease and  Frustrations and ns and Critiques
Barriers to Nutrition and
Lifetime Effectiveness

Complications Fitness
 Need for
Repetition, Recommendatio
Follow-up, and ns
Gradual  E-Health
Changes

12. Original Visual Aid Guide (Woolford et
al.)

13. New & Improved Visual Aid Tool

14. Improvements
 Simplified language
 Added graphics
 Redefined age group
 Removed words
“obesity” and “diet”
 Examples provided
 Clarify “limited amounts”
 Expand on BMI
 Emphasize family
 Emphasize commitment
 Added open-ended
measures
 Added take-home page

15. Discussion
Limitations
Ethical Implications
Future Research

16. Discussion
 Limitations
 Limitednumber of interviews
 Socio-economic constraints to implementation
 Ethical Implications
 What’s the “right” thing to do for society?
 Issue is complex and value laden
 Future Research
 Feasibilityand usability testing of new tool
 Incorporation with e-health, EMR and Web portals

17. Questions?
Kristina Ticknor
Communications Consultant, Booz Allen
Hamilton
Email: klticknor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kticknor