Adapting a Parental Support App to Promote Healthy Diet and Physical Activity Behaviors (MINISTOP) for a Multi-Ethnic Setting: A Qualitative Study on the Needs and Preferences of Parents and Nurses within Swedish Child Health Care.

Christina Alexandrou,Kristin Thomas,Ulrika Müssener,Marie Löf,Hanna Henriksson

doi:10.3390/nu13072190

Christina Alexandrou, Kristin Thomas + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072190

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Journal: Nutrients	Publication Date: Jun 25, 2021
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Linköping University, Karolinska Institutet

Abstract

Early efforts for prevention of childhood overweight and obesity are needed. In order to adapt an app promoting healthy diet and physical activity behaviors in children (MINISTOP 1.0) for multi-ethnic communities, we explored: (1) needs and concerns among Somali-, Arabic-, and Swedish-speaking parents in terms of supporting healthy diet and activity behaviors in their children; (2) nurses’ perceptions of parental needs and concerns in relation to diet and physical activity behaviors; and (3) how the features and content of the MINISTOP 1.0 app could be refined to better support health behaviors in children, among both parents and nurses. Focus groups with Somali-, Arabic-, and Swedish-speaking parents (n = 15), and individual interviews with nurses (n = 15) were conducted. Parents expressed several challenges in supporting children’s health behaviors, the need for a tailored app, and alternative ways of accessing the content (audio/video). Nurses emphasized the need of supporting parents early, and the value of a shared platform in different languages, to facilitate communication. This study contributes valuable insights about parental needs and relevant adaptations to a parental support app, such as addition of audio/video files for increased accessibility. This adapted app version—MINISTOP 2.0, can be useful for childhood obesity prevention in multi-ethnic communities.

Highlights

Childhood obesity is a health challenge worldwide; in 2019, an estimated 38 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese [1,2]
We have previously developed the MINISTOP app, which provides a six-month Mobile health (mHealth) program aiming to support parents to promote healthy diet and physical activity behaviors and prevent obesity in preschool-aged children [23]
This study aimed to explore: (1) needs and concerns among Somali, Arabic, and Swedish-speaking parents in terms of supporting heathy diet and activity behaviors in their children; (2) nurses’ perceptions of parental needs and concerns in relation to diet and physical activity behaviors; and (3) how features and content of the MINISTOP 1.0 app could be refined in order to support healthy diet and activity behaviors in children, among both parents and nurses

Summary

Introduction

Childhood obesity is a health challenge worldwide; in 2019, an estimated 38 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese [1,2]. Preventive efforts to counteract this development have been called for already in the preschool age (2–5 years) [6], with primary child health care nurses being key players for delivering interventions [7]. Nurses within Swedish primary child health care have a unique role since they regularly meet more than 99% of children in Sweden aged 0–5 years [8]. This allows them to follow each child’s development and work preventively, as well as to support families with different needs [8]. Far, effective and scalable interventions to counteract obesity for this setting in Sweden and other countries are largely lacking

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