Delivering weight management support in Complications of Excess Weight Clinics

Obesity is a growing health challenge for children and young people in the UK. Around one in four children aged 10 to 11 in England are living with obesity. Excess weight can increase the risk of serious health problems including type 2 diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, breathing difficulties, sleep problems and poor mental health.

Without effective support, obesity in childhood often continues into adulthood, affecting long-term health and quality of life. To help address this, NHS England has established specialist Complications from Excess Weight (CEW) clinics for children and young people with severe obesity and related health needs. These clinics bring together multidisciplinary teams, including doctors, nurses, psychologists and dietitians, to provide personalised, family-centred care.

‘AIM2Change: making the changes that matter to you’ is a weight-management intervention we developed for young people who hadn’t been able to make lifestyle changes while attending specialist weight-management services in the past. It aims to provide skills to address challenges, improve wellbeing, and increase intrinsic motivation for healthful behaviours of value to the individual.

Project aims

This project will test whether it is feasible for us to deliver the AIM2Change intervention in four CEW clinics across diverse ethnic and geographical regions in England.

We will be working with CEW clinics in:

• Cornwall
• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Southampton

What we hope to achieve

Evidence from this project will help us design a larger trial of AIM2Change to test its efficacy and safety in multiple CEW clinics around the UK.