Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
Adolescent Perceptions of Transactions with Nurse Practitioners and Obesity Management Outcomes
Rae W. Langford, EdD and Brenda K. Binder, PhD, PNP. College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Houston, TX, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Describe the growing health threats posed by the adolescent obesity epidemic. |
| Learning Objective #2: Identify the impact of adolescent/nurse practitioner transactions on weight management. |
Adolescent obesity presents a growing health care challenge. Literature reveals no consistently successful long-term treatment approaches but does suggest that active participation by the adolescent might be a key to the success of any approach. King’s goal attainment theory served as a framework for the study. This descriptive study examined the relationship between transaction levels with nurse practitioners and weight loss among identified overweight adolescents followed for at least one year in two nurse practitioner managed clinics in Freeport and Lake Jackson Texas. Sixty adolescents completed a personal profile and the Adolescent Transaction Scale (ATS). The ATS is a 16-item Likert scale based on King’s conceptualization of transaction. Reliability and validity were examined for a sample of 250 healthy adolescents (Brown, 2001). Internal consistency was tested and Cronbach alpha reported as 0.9226. Construct validity was examined using a factor analysis which produced three factors accounting for 52% of the variance. Chart audits determined Body Mass Index (BMI) changes over a one year period. Multiple regression techniques were used to examine the relationship between transactions and weight loss while controlling for gender, age and ethnicity.
Preliminary results* from 30 subjects revealed an evenly mixed sample of predominantly Hispanic males and females ranging in age from 11 to 16. The majority had elevated blood pressures and obesity related health problems. Body mass ranged from 18 to 50. BMI changes and transaction levels were not significantly correlated. A restricted BMI change score contributed to the absence of a correlation. A second study will examine weight management behaviors as an additional dependent variable. Secondary findings included little evidence of charted documentation and lack of obesity related follow up for clearly identified overweight teens.
*Note: results from the entire sample of 60 will be available before the conference.
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