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Introduction: Self-managed exercise and nutrition interventions can alleviate pre-frailty and frailty but understanding of adherence to them is lacking. This study aimed to explore the experiences of, and barriers and enablers to, a hospital-to-home self-managed combined exercise and nutrition program for hospitalised older adults living with pre-frailty and frailty. Methods: A hybrid approach to data- and theory-driven descriptive thematic analysis identified experiences, barriers, and enablers to participation in a 3-month, self-managed, exercise–nutrition, hospital-to-home frailty-support program. Pre-frail and frail older adult patients ≥ 65 years admitted to the acute medical unit at a South Australian tertiary hospital were recruited. Individual semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed descriptively, using the Theoretical Domains Framework. Results: The nutrition component of the program found 11 common barriers and 18 common enablers. The exercise component included 14 barriers and 24 enablers. Intentions, Social influences, Environmental context/resource and Emotions served as primary barriers towards adherence to both components. Common enablers for both components included Knowledge, Social identity, Environmental context/resource, Social influences, and Emotions. Conclusions: This research revealed important factors affecting adherence to a self-managed exercise–nutrition program in pre-frail and frail older adults within the environment, resources, and emotion domains that should be considered when designing other intervention programs in this population group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children in Australia currently bring a packed lunch to school from home. Many children are not consuming a healthy diet at school. There is interest from key stakeholders (e.g. education and the non-government sector, food service and parents/caregivers) to transform the Australian system to a school-provided model to improve children's diets, reduce parental burden and address food insecurity. To facilitate a successful transition to this system, it is important to consider the views of the children. We aimed to explore Australian primary school children's perceptions of a hypothetical school-provided lunch model. To achieve this aim, we undertook a qualitative study using the story completion method. Twenty-one grade-five children, from one public primary school in South Australia, participated in a once-off data collection session. Children were given a brief story stem and asked to complete a story about a hypothetical school-provided lunch scenario. The story data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes were generated: the eating environment, the food provided, processes of the mealtime and time. The desire for choice was an additional overarching theme that cut across all themes. Our study provides the first exploration of South Australian children's perceptions of hypothetical school-provided meals. These insights can be used to co-design an acceptable school food system with children to create a positive eating environment that supports healthy eating habits they can carry forward into adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the experience of being a Community Foodies (CF) peer educator with respect to personal benefits, specifically, personal development, wellbeing and empowerment. Qualitative semi-structured telephone interviews conducted with metropolitan and country peer educators of the CF programme. The CF programme in South Australia (SA) delivers nutrition education to disadvantaged communities. Ten adult peer educators from the CF programme: seven from country SA and three from Adelaide. Phenomenon of interest is that peer educators' perceptions of personal growth and development from involvement in the CF programme. The interviews were audiotaped and analysed thematically. The experience of being a nutrition peer educator improved personal skills and knowledge, dietary habits, self-esteem, confidence, sense of belonging and civic engagement. Peer educators felt that the CF programme was run in a straightforward, easy to understand way, with a welcoming environment and abundant support from the coordinators. Apart from benefits to themselves, peer educators appeared to be most proud of their capacity to contribute to the nutritional health of the broader community. Peer education programmes in disadvantaged communities provide policy makers with valuable and cost-effective approaches to improve health, build self-efficacy, strengthen community engagement, and, foster active participation and trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]