Healthier habits could be in the cards for teenagers with help from a simple deck of conversation starters University of Alberta researchers have developed for use during medical appointments.
“The Conversation Cards for Adolescents act as a tool and prompt for teens who are thinking about a whole bunch of other things,” says Geoff Ball, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and researcher involved in a recent study examining how the cards could be used in a clinical setting and how teenagers felt about them.
“It leads them into talking about topics that are meaningful for them and hopefully will be helpful for clinicians,” Ball adds.
“It’s a chance for these adolescents to take ownership of their own medical condition, to make their own health-related decisions,” says Maryam Kebbe, first author of the study, former PhD student under Ball’s supervision and currently an assistant professor in the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Kinesiology.
The cards are a followup to the successful CONversation Cards, which were designed to help parents have more effective conversations about their children’s weight management. The new cards broaden the scope beyond weight and were created with teens in mind.
To ensure the statements on the cards resonated with their intended audience, Kebbe led one-on-one interviews with several teens to develop the messages.
“They’re a special population, and there are certain techniques that may prove more fruitful than others,” she says. “We tried our best to make it more of a conversation, to meet them where they are and get insight in that way.”
The interview responses were adapted into a deck of 45 cards with statements encompassing seven themes: nutrition, physical activity, sedentary activity, sleep, mental health, relationships, and clinic factors.
The study was conducted at the Northeast Community Health Centre and involved 31 teens aged 13 to 17. All participants were tasked with setting health goals with their health-care provider, but half were given the opportunity to look through the cards in the waiting room before their appointment.
Overall, the teens’ feedback was positive, with 71 per cent saying the cards helped with health-related decisions and 86 per cent indicating the cards were effective at identifying factors that influenced their behaviour.
“Adolescence is a transitional period. They’re no longer children, but they’re also not adults,” says Kebbe. “Being engaged in those health conversations can be very empowering.”
Numerous participants also confirmed that using the cards improved their rapport with the health-care provider they saw (57 per cent), that they’d be happy to use the cards in future appointments (73 per cent) and would recommend them to other teens (86 per cent).
Although further studies are needed to test whether the cards help fuel actual behavioural changes, the researchers say they are encouraged by the positive reception from teens and seamless integration into a clinical setting. They also note the cards are adaptable to other contexts where they may benefit teens, such as schools or counselling offices.
Ball is a member of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute and Alberta Health Services Chair in Obesity Research.