Abstract
Childhood obesity is a chronic disease with negative consequences for physical and psychosocial health and wellbeing on the short and long-term. To manage childhood overweight and obesity, integrated care as part of an integrated approach is needed. To realize implementation of this integrated care, practical guidance for policy and practice is needed. The aim of this study is to describe the development of a Dutch national model of integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity and accompanying materials for policy and practice.
The development of the national model was led by a university-based team in collaboration with eight selected Dutch municipalities who were responsible for the local realization of the integrated care and with frequent input from other stakeholders. Learning communities were organized to exchange knowledge, experiences and tools between the participating municipalities.
The developed national model describes the vision, process, partners and finance of the integrated care. It sets out a structure that provides a basis for local integrated care that should facilitate support and care for children with overweight or obesity and their families. The accompanying materials are divided into materials for policymakers to support local realisation of the integrated care and materials for healthcare professionals to support them in delivering the needed support and care.
The developed national model and accompanying materials can contribute to improvement of support and care for children with overweight or obesity and their families, and thereby help improve the health, quality of life and societal participation of these children. Further implementation of the evidence- and practice-based integrated care while evaluating on the way is needed.
Keywords: Network care, Paediatric obesity, Primary health care, Social health care, Management childhood obesity, Sustainable behavioural change, Evidence- and practice-based model, Facilitating policy and practice.