TY - GEN
T1 - Healthy Together
T2 - A behavioural change intervention to support a healthy lifestyle postpartum
AU - Christiansen, Pernille Kjærgaard
N1 - Funding:
The project was funded by Centre for Innovative Medical Technology (CIMT) and University College Lillebælt (UCL)
PY - 2022/11/18
Y1 - 2022/11/18
N2 - The number of overweight or obese women of the childbearing age has increased over the past
decades. Overweight and obesity contributes to lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases. Many women exceed the Institute of Medicine’s weight gain
recommendations during pregnancy, which place them at risk of long-term overweight and obesity.
This thesis shows the development and evaluation of an IT-based intervention to support a healthy
postpartum lifestyle.A Participatory Design approach has been used to ensure that the solution meets the users’ needs and
is useful to mothers. The Behaviour Change Wheel has been applied to determine how the solution
supports behavioural change. The thesis is built around four papers:Paper 1 is a literature study aiming to identify existing literature on effective interventions to maternal
weight loss after birth. Eight papers were included. It shows that IT-based interventions can support
a healthy postpartum lifestyle and weight control. Future studies should focus on longer follow up
periods, larger samples, and lasting adherence to the interventions.Paper 2 is the identification of barriers to a healthy lifestyle postpartum and the possibilities of an ITbased intervention. Five focus groups with new mothers and two focus groups with healthcare
professionals (HCPs) were conducted to define barriers related to a healthy lifestyle postpartum. The
results show that mothers lack tools to support and inform them about a healthy postpartum lifestyle.
An IT-based intervention could be a way to accommodate the mothers’ needs. Paper 3 is the development of a module in a mobile application to support healthy postpartum lifestyle
through behavioural changes. The development of the intervention was carried out in collaboration
with new mothers, healthcare professionals, IT consultants, and researchers. The intervention was
based on outcomes from the workshops, interviews, feedback sessions, and think-aloud test. It
resulted in a module (Healthy Together) in the already existing mobile application My Hospital. The
module contains weekly push-notifications, podcasts, exercise videos, and weight tracking.Paper 4 is an evaluation of mothers’ use of, experiences with, and attitudes towards the module
Healthy Together as an intervention to support a healthy postpartum lifestyle. Thirty-four mothers
were included in this phase of the study. One dropped out due to technical problems after a few weeks.
The evaluation is based on 18 personal interviews and an online questionnaire with 28 respondents.
It shows that an IT-based intervention with podcasts, push messages, exercise videos, and weight
tracking may have the potential to support a postpartum healthy lifestyle. However, it should not be
regarded as a one-size-fits-all solution. The results indicate that those who used the module were
women who were physically active prior to their pregnancy.
AB - The number of overweight or obese women of the childbearing age has increased over the past
decades. Overweight and obesity contributes to lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases. Many women exceed the Institute of Medicine’s weight gain
recommendations during pregnancy, which place them at risk of long-term overweight and obesity.
This thesis shows the development and evaluation of an IT-based intervention to support a healthy
postpartum lifestyle.A Participatory Design approach has been used to ensure that the solution meets the users’ needs and
is useful to mothers. The Behaviour Change Wheel has been applied to determine how the solution
supports behavioural change. The thesis is built around four papers:Paper 1 is a literature study aiming to identify existing literature on effective interventions to maternal
weight loss after birth. Eight papers were included. It shows that IT-based interventions can support
a healthy postpartum lifestyle and weight control. Future studies should focus on longer follow up
periods, larger samples, and lasting adherence to the interventions.Paper 2 is the identification of barriers to a healthy lifestyle postpartum and the possibilities of an ITbased intervention. Five focus groups with new mothers and two focus groups with healthcare
professionals (HCPs) were conducted to define barriers related to a healthy lifestyle postpartum. The
results show that mothers lack tools to support and inform them about a healthy postpartum lifestyle.
An IT-based intervention could be a way to accommodate the mothers’ needs. Paper 3 is the development of a module in a mobile application to support healthy postpartum lifestyle
through behavioural changes. The development of the intervention was carried out in collaboration
with new mothers, healthcare professionals, IT consultants, and researchers. The intervention was
based on outcomes from the workshops, interviews, feedback sessions, and think-aloud test. It
resulted in a module (Healthy Together) in the already existing mobile application My Hospital. The
module contains weekly push-notifications, podcasts, exercise videos, and weight tracking.Paper 4 is an evaluation of mothers’ use of, experiences with, and attitudes towards the module
Healthy Together as an intervention to support a healthy postpartum lifestyle. Thirty-four mothers
were included in this phase of the study. One dropped out due to technical problems after a few weeks.
The evaluation is based on 18 personal interviews and an online questionnaire with 28 respondents.
It shows that an IT-based intervention with podcasts, push messages, exercise videos, and weight
tracking may have the potential to support a postpartum healthy lifestyle. However, it should not be
regarded as a one-size-fits-all solution. The results indicate that those who used the module were
women who were physically active prior to their pregnancy.
U2 - 10.21996/f2gk-3560
DO - 10.21996/f2gk-3560
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
PB - Syddansk Universitet. Det Sundhedsvidenskabelige Fakultet
ER -