| Health Promotion: Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents |
Quote of the Day: "Just Move!" (American Heart Association) |
How do you get children and adolescents to change their PA habits?
In 2001, The Task Force on Community Preventive Services to increase Physical Activity recommended as 1 of 6 intervention strategies that physical activity counseling and individually adapted health behavior change should be encouraged.
BUT
In 2002, The United States Preventative Services Task Force "found insufficient evidence to determine whether counseling patients in primary care settings to promote physical activity leads to sustained increases in physical activity among adult patients....There were no completed trials with children or adolescents that compared counseling with usual care practices"
SO WHAT DO YOU DO?
You can try an approach that has been shown to lead to behavior change in many areas. It is called Motivational Interviewing and one of your readings give you an introduction to this method of working with patients on behavior change issues of all kinds not just those related to diet and exercise. To use this method, the patient must have the cognitive ability of insight so if the target patient is younger than a teenager then you will be using this with the parents. You can access the article at the link below.
http://nurse-practitioners.advanceweb.com/common/editorial/editorial.aspx?CTIID=613
Some factors to be aware of when working with adolescents and motivational interviewing
- Time - keep the sesison short. Even as little as 2 session smay provide the stimulus to begin change
- conduct the interview without the parent
- Adolescents often have low self-esteem & self efficacy - help the patient see they can have success
- "baby step" goals can help with this
- Need to focus on short term gains even if long-term gains are also desired
- utilize peer group influences if you can
- Good opening line: What do you think this visit is about? It is important to get the patient to say why he/she is there, even if it is because of someone else's (parent's) concern.