Search

Background: Design thinking is an iterative process that innovates solutions through a person‐centric approach and is increasingly used across health contexts. The person‐centric approach lends itself to working with groups with complex needs. One such group is families experiencing economic hardship, who are vulnerable to food insecurity and face challenges with child feeding. Objective: This study describes the application of a design thinking framework, utilizing mixed methods, including co‐design, to develop a responsive child‐feeding intervention for Australian families—'Eat, Learn, Grow'. Methods: Guided by the five stages of design thinking, which comprises empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. We engaged with parents/caregivers of a child aged 6 months to 3 years through co‐design workshops (n = 13), direct observation of mealtimes (n = 10), a cross‐sectional survey (n = 213) and semistructured interviews (n = 29). Findings across these methods were synthesized using affinity mapping to clarify the intervention parameters. Parent user testing (n = 12) was conducted online with intervention prototypes to determine acceptability and accessibility. A co‐design workshop with child health experts (n = 9) was then undertaken to review and co‐design content for the final intervention. Results: Through the design thinking process, an innovative digital child‐feeding intervention was created. This intervention utilized a mobile‐first design and consisted of a series of short and interactive modules that used a learning technology tool. The design is based on the concept of microlearning and responds to participants' preferences for visual, brief and plain language information accessed via a mobile phone. User testing sessions with parents and the expert co‐design workshop indicated that the intervention was highly acceptable. Conclusions: Design thinking encourages researchers to approach problems creatively and to design health interventions that align with participant needs. Applying mixed methods—including co‐design— within this framework allows for a better understanding of user contexts, preferences and priorities, ensuring solutions are more acceptable and likely to be engaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The first 2000 days of life are a crucial and opportunistic time to promote positive dietary and physical activity behaviours that can continue throughout life. The bulk of research on the impact of parents promoting positive dietary and physical activity behaviours has been on mothers, with the impact of fathers rarely investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate fathers' perceived role, self-efficacy and support needs in promoting positive dietary and physical activity behaviours in early childhood. Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed methods study design consisted of a cross sectional survey of Australian fathers (n = 200) from a convenience sample, followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 21) with a purposeful sample of Australian fathers. Results: Quantitative survey data revealed that more than 90.0% of fathers agreed that it is important to role model healthy eating and participating in physical activity with their babies, toddlers and children. A majority of fathers were confident in getting their child to eat fruit/ vegetables (90%) and playing with their child (80%). When searching for information about nutrition and physical activity, the highest proportion of fathers nominated online sources (52%) as their preferred source in survey data. Qualitative interview data revealed that while fathers exhibited high self-efficacy in their abilities, this was susceptible to deterioration due to feelings of isolation, pressures of fatherhood, a lack of information and resources that are father specific, and difficulties navigating the different types of information/resources to find what is right for them. Conclusions: Although possessing self-efficacy, being committed and seeking knowledge, many fathers found that useful information was hard to find and understand. Appropriate resources are therefore required to support the specific needs of fathers to promote positive dietary and physical activity behaviours in their infants and young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding, breastfeeding rates remain suboptimal, particularly for women with lower socioeconomic position. Although popular, breastfeeding apps are often poor quality; their impact on breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, confidence and intentions is unknown. A mixed method pre- post feasibility study was conducted to: 1) explore the feasibility of the My Baby Now app in providing perinatal breastfeeding support; 2) examine the impact on breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, confidence and intentions; 3) to examine any differences in acceptability and impact of the app according to maternal education. The My Baby Now app was offered to pregnant women 20-30 weeks gestation. Breastfeeding knowledge and intentions were collected at baseline (T1) and 36-38 weeks gestation (T2); attitudes and confidence were collected at baseline, T2 and T3 (8-12 weeks post-partum). App engagement was measured via app analytics. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample following T3. Of 266 participants recruited, 169 (64%) completed T2 and 157 (59%) completed T3. Mothers without university education rated the app to be higher quality, more useful and impactful than mothers with university education. From T1-T2, breastfeeding knowledge (59.6% vs. 66.5%, p < 0.001) and exclusive breastfeeding intentions (76.6% vs. 80.9%, p < 0.001) increased. Breastfeeding attitudes and confidence scores also increased significantly across T1-T2 and T1-T3. App engagement during pregnancy predicted changes in breastfeeding attitudes from T1-T2 among participants without university education. App engagement did not predict changes in breastfeeding knowledge, confidence or intentions. Future randomised controlled studies should examine the effectiveness of mHealth interventions on breastfeeding outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]