A Patient and Public Involvement investigation into healthy eating and weight management advice during pregnancy

Julie Abayomi, Margaret Charnley, Laura Cassidy, M McCann, J Jones, M Wright, L Newson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
152 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective 

To conduct patient and public involvement (PPI) to gain insight into the experience of healthy eating and weight management advice during pregnancy. 

Design 

PPI in the planning and development of health interventions, aiming to ensure patient-centred care. Optimum nutrition and weight management are vital for successful pregnancy outcomes, yet many services report poor attendance and engagement. 

Setting 

Community venues in Liverpool and Ulster (UK). 

Participants 

Two PPI representatives were involved in all aspects of the study: design, interview questions, recruitment and collection/analysis of feedback. 

Intervention 

Feedback was collected via note taking during group discussions, two in Liverpool (n = 10 & 5); two in Ulster (n = 7 & 9) and an interview (n = 1, in Ulster). 

Main Outcome Measures 

Transcript data were collated and thematic analysis was applied in analysis. 

Results 

Thematic analysis identified three themes: (i) weight gain is inevitable in pregnancy; (ii) healthy eating advice is important but currently lacks consistency and depth and (iii) expectations regarding the type of knowledge/support. 

Conclusions 

PPI provides opportunity to enhance research design and offers valuable insight towards the needs of healthcare users. Pregnant women want positive health messages, with a focus on what they can/should do, rather than what they should not do. Midwives need to consider their communication with pregnant women, to ensure that their unique relationship is maintained, especially when the topics of diet and weight management are addressed. A well-designed digital intervention could improve access to pregnancy-specific nutrition information; empowering midwives to communicate patient-centred, healthy eating messages with confidence. This has the potential to change dietary and weight management behaviour in pregnant women.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)28-34
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal for Quality in Health Care
Volume32
Issue number1
Early online date5 Feb 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 29 Feb 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), The Department, 4th Floor, 2 Renshaw Street, Liverpool L1 2SA, U.K., for funding this work.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Keywords

  • disease categories
  • patient-centred care
  • reproductive health
  • General Medicine
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Health Policy

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