Imperial College London
Alternate

EUR ING Dr Edward A Meinert

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Honorary Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

e.meinert14

 
 
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Location

 

Reynolds BuildingCharing Cross Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Milne-Ives:2024:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000481,
author = {Milne-Ives, M and Rahman, E and Bradwell, H and Baines, R and Boey, T and Potter, A and Lawrence, W and Helena, van Velthoven M and Meinert, E},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pdig.0000481},
journal = {PLOS Digital Health},
title = {Barriers and facilitators to parents’ engagement with and perceived impact of a childhood obesity app: a mixed-methods study},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000481},
volume = {3},
year = {2024}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Childhood obesity is a growing global health concern. Although mobile health apps have the potential to deliver behavioural interventions, their impact is commonly limited by a lack of sufficient engagement. The purpose of this study was to explore barriers and facilitators to engagement with a family-focused app and its perceived impact on motivation, self-efficacy, and behaviour. Parents with at least one child under 18 and healthcare professionals working with children were recruited; all participants were allocated to use the NoObesity app over a 6-month period. The mixed-methods design was based on the Non-adoption, Abandonment, Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability and Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance frameworks. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and app use data (logins and in-app self-reported data). 35 parents were included in the final analysis; quantitative results were analysed descriptively and thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data. Key barriers to engagement were boredom, forgetting, and usability issues and key barriers to potential impact on behaviours were accessibility, lack of motivation, and family characteristics. Novelty, gamification features, reminders, goal setting, progress monitoring and feedback, and suggestions for healthy foods and activities were key facilitators to engagement with the app and behaviours. A key observation was that intervention strategies could help address many motivation and capability barriers, but there was a gap in strategies addressing opportunity barriers. Without incorporating strategies that successfully mitigate barriers in all three determinants of behaviour, an intervention is unlikely to be successful. We highlight key recommendations for developers to consider when designing the features and implementation of digital health interventions.
AU  - Milne-Ives,M
AU  - Rahman,E
AU  - Bradwell,H
AU  - Baines,R
AU  - Boey,T
AU  - Potter,A
AU  - Lawrence,W
AU  - Helena,van Velthoven M
AU  - Meinert,E
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000481
PY  - 2024///
SN  - 2767-3170
TI  - Barriers and facilitators to parents’ engagement with and perceived impact of a childhood obesity app: a mixed-methods study
T2  - PLOS Digital Health
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000481
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/111131
VL  - 3
ER  -
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