Poster Presentation ANZOS-Breakthrough Discoveries Joint Annual Scientific Meeting 2018

Patient and parent satisfaction with hospital-based paediatric weight management services and reasons for attrition: a mixed methods systematic review (#322)

Caitlin McMaster 1 , Megan Gow 1 , Jennifer Cohen 1 , Renee Neal 1 , Shirley Alexander 1 , Louise Baur 1 2
  1. Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  2. Discipline of Child & Adolescent Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Consideration of consumer feedback has the ability to improve the quality, accessibility and outcomes of healthcare service provision. This is particularly pertinent for paediatric weight management services, where rates of attrition have been reported to be as high as 75%. This review aimed to summarise the current literature regarding parent and patient satisfaction with secondary or tertiary paediatric weight management services. Systematic searches of Medline, PsychINFO, CINAHL, AMED and Embase were conducted for English-language studies reporting on parent and/or patient satisfaction with paediatric weight management services. Articles were included if they reported on the experiences of patients aged 18 years or younger and/or their family who attended a hospital-based secondary or tertiary level paediatric weight management service. 19 papers (five quantitative and 14 qualitative) met the inclusion criteria, with 12 papers reporting on parent satisfaction and 7 on both patient and parent satisfaction. All papers used measures of service satisfaction developed by the authors, with three also utilising existing quantitative measures of service satisfaction. The main themes reported in qualitative papers included: (1) Value of the whole family being involved in treatment; (2) Importance of a collaborative, therapeutic relationship between health care providers and both the patient and parent; and (3) The benefits of improved health outcomes as a result of treatment. The most commonly reported barriers to treatment or reasons for attrition included: (1) Logistical issues (transport, parking, scheduling); (2) Patients no longer wanting to attend treatment; and (3) Treatment being perceived as irrelevant. The current literature on patient and parent satisfaction of paediatric weight management services predominantly focuses on barriers to treatment, rather than facilitators of treatment and the incorporation of consumer feedback into service development. Furthermore, no standardised measures of treatment acceptability and reasons for attrition exist for use in the area of paediatric weight management.