A Focused Ethnographic Study of Children's Perspectives and Experiences of Being Obese and Participating in an Obesity Intervention Program.

Childhood obesity has risen dramatically and become a global health issue, with significant physical and psycho-social health consequences. Although there has been significant research on childhood obesity and its management and treatment, there have been very few attempts to investigate the experience and perception of children living with obesity as well as their intervention experiences. Understanding the perceptions of children with obesity is necessary for developing and improving strategies for tackling childhood obesity.
A focused ethnographic study was conducted with thirteen children aged 10 to 15 living with obesity. Data was collected using demographic information forms, observations, semi-structured interviews, talk-and-draw sessions, and diaries between the 8th May and 17th July 2019 (eleven weeks), when the psycho-social intervention (PSI) programme was started in the SHINE (Self-Help, Independence, Nutrition, and Exercise) Health Academy. During the data collection period, seventeen interviews were conducted with thirteen children. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.
Findings from children’s accounts reveal that obesity affects every aspect of their lives (e.g. physical, social, individual, and psycho-social) lowering their everyday activity, quality of life and well-being. Children were more concerned with the psycho-social implications of their weight-related difficulties rather than the physical.
The findings also demonstrate that children’s expectations of a multidisciplinary intervention programme are related to improving and overcoming weight-related difficulties. Children described how the intervention has enabled them to gain a clear understanding of how to manage obesity in relation to a healthy and balanced diet in order to achieve their desired goals, as well as reducing the psycho-social impact of obesity to them. They demonstrated physical, individual, emotional, and psycho-social beneficial improvements by applying the information and receiving support they gained from the programme to their life.
This study demonstrates that when children with obesity are approached with an appropriate strategy based on their experiences of being obese and intervention, favourable effects are attained. Therefore, this study may help inform policymakers and intervention programme providers for better understanding weight-related difficulties and intervention experience that children encountered and develop a more holistic treatment plan. Greater effort must be made to mitigate children’s weight-related difficulties and increase their engagement in the programme.