Implementing a weight-specific quality-of-life tool for young people in primary health care: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Obesity is thought to be one of the most serious global public health challenges of the 21st century. The primary care setting is important in terms of the diagnosis, education, and management of obesity in children and young people. This study explored the views of primary care clinicians on the implementation of a quality-of-life (QoL) tool to help young people and their families identify the impact of weight on QoL. AIM: To assess the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the Weight-specific Adolescent Instrument for Economic-evaluation (WAItE) QoL tool for young people aged 11–18 years in primary care. DESIGN & SETTING: Qualitative study in Northern England, UK METHOD: One-to-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of primary healthcare clinicians working in practices located in areas of varying deprivation in Northern England, UK. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed using framework analysis in NVivo (version 10). RESULTS: Participants (n = 16 GPs; n = 4 practice nurses) found the WAItE tool acceptable for them and their patients, and believed it was feasible for use in routine clinical practice. It was important to primary care clinicians that the tool would provide an overall QoL score that would be easy for GPs and nurses to interpret, to help them identify patients most in need of specialist help. CONCLUSION: This study has developed a platform for further research around QoL in young people who are overweight and obese. A future feasibility study will focus on implementing the tool in a small number of primary healthcare practices.