Implementation Of The Connect For Health Pediatric Weight Management Program: Study Protocol And Baseline Characteristics

We are implementing Connect for Health, a primary care-based intervention to improve family-centered outcomes for children, ages 2-12 years, in organizations that care for low-income children. We will use the 'Reach-Effectiveness-Adoption-Implementation-Maintenance' framework to guide our mixed-methods evaluation to examine the effectiveness of stakeholder-informed strategies in supporting program adoption and child outcomes. We also describe characteristics of children, ages 2-12 years with a BMI >= 85th percentile and obesity-related care practices. During the period prior to implementation, 26,161 children with a BMI >= 85th percentile were seen for a primary care visit and a majority lacked recommended diagnosis codes, referrals and laboratory evaluations. The findings suggest the need to augment current approaches to increase uptake of proven-effective weight management programs.