Funded Projects

Pediatric Obesity: Improving access to services

Project Year

2024

City & State

Lincoln, Nebraska

Program Name

CATCH Implementation

Topic

Overweight & Obesity (LHI)

Program Description

Problem:  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published their first Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the Evaluation and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Obesity. In these guidelines, obesity is identified as one of the most common pediatric chronic diseases. The CPG lists Key Action Statements (KAS) to help assess and treat obesity in children and adolescents. KAS 9-12 illustrates the importance of a child’s medical home to treat obesity. Comprehensive treatment of obesity. The Lincoln community and surrounding areas currently lack a structured model for intensive behavior lifestyle MI, IHT, and WP provided by a local clinic. Physicians and APPs refer patients who meet criteria to Children’s Hospital or Boystown in Omaha for their weight program. This has proven to be a lengthy process for the patient to start in the program. The lack of a local program creates a significant barrier to care for patients, many of which lack the means to attend treatment in Omaha.  Primary Setting:  Annie Hubka, APRN, DNP developed the SHINE metabolic health clinic, located at Complete Children’s Health in Lincoln, Nebraska and is open to referrals from the community. SHINE is an acronym for; Stronger (exercise), Healthy Habits, Improving (lab values), Nutrition, and Empower (empower families). The SHINE clinic is a multidisciplinary approach, led by medical providers, but also includes nursing staff, dietitians and fitness experts in the community. The medical providers include Annie Hubka, APRN, DNP with supervising pediatrician, Dave Meduna, MD. The primary setting for our project is the SHINE Clinic YouTube channel. The nutrition and exercise educational videos created in the project will be posted to the SHINE Clinic YouTube channel, allowing them to be accessible to all youth in the Lancaster area. Children Affected: Our proposed services will be available initially on a local level with the potential to be a national resource.  The local area consists of children in Lancaster county, Nebraska. As of 2019, this includes 84,204 children under the age of 19. Of those, 44,425 were above the age of 10, which would be our primary focus for the literacy level of the videos.  In Nebraska, 29% of children ages 10-17 are considered overweight or obese (BMI greater or equal to 85%) (Kids Count Data Center). From this data, we can estimate that in Lancaster county, 12,883 children over age 10 are considered overweight or obese and 19,991 lack regular exercise habits.   Project Goal:  The project goal is to improve access to nutrition education and exercise opportunities by eliminating barriers to resources.   Proposed Intervention:  We would like to utilize grant funding to develop nutritional and exercise videos specific to pediatrics. These videos would cover the foundation of nutrition and exercise, problem solving for frequently identified barriers such as meal planning, busy schedules, traveling, or limited access to fitness centers. The videos would be shared for free on the YouTube platform under the SHINE Clinic channel. All children in the community would have access to the videos.  Anticipated Outcomes:     We anticipate an increase in the number of children engaging in movement on a regular basis by utilizing the at-home exercise videos. We anticipate an increase in consumption of whole food nutrition and decrease in the consumption of highly processed foods after families watch the nutrition videos. We anticipate an increase in healthy habits by families based on the knowledge obtained in the educational videos. We also anticipate a reduction in the percentage of patients considered overweight or obese based on the aforementioned outcomes. 

Project Goal

The project goal is to improve access to nutrition education and exercise opportunities by eliminating barriers to resources.  

Project Objective 1

By May 31, 2025, achieve 300 views by Lancaster County youth and 25 shares by community partners of our videos on YouTube. 

Project Objective 2

By May 31, 2025, establish a SHINE Pediatric Obesity Community Partners Board with 6-10 community partner board members to address ongoing pediatric obesity issues in the Lancaster community.  The board will be inclusive, with board members selected to equally represent each socioeconomic and ethnic background of the community. 

Project Objective 3

By May 31, 2025, increase free nutrition and exercise educational programming for children in Lancaster county by 50% , focusing on community programs that target children in underserved groups to ensure access to nutrition and exercise education.  

AAP District

District VI

Institutional Name

Complete Children's Health, SHINE Clinic 

Contact 1

David Meduna, MD

Contact 2

Andrea (Annie) Hubka, APRN, DNP