Strategies for Healthy Eating Promotion and Behavioral Change Perceived as Effective by Nutrition Professionals: A Mixed-Methods Study

BACKGROUND Nutrition and healthy eating behaviors during pregnancy are vitally important for the health of a mother and her developing baby. However, some midwives have reported a lack of evidence-based nutrition knowledge for providing information about healthy eating to women during pregnancy. OBJECTIVE In this study, the aim is to design and evaluate a healthy eating education program to enhance midwives’ knowledge, understanding, and confidence to support pregnant women in South Australia to make healthy eating choices. METHODS This mixed-methods study consists of two phases. The first phase, Phase 1, consists of an education program for midwives, “Healthy Eating in Pregnancy,” to be delivered through a workshop or webinar. Each midwife will attend one workshop or webinar, which will be approximately two hours in length. This program will be evaluated through pre-, immediate-, and post-educational questionnaires utilizing a website specifically designed for this study. The participants will be midwives who are members of the Australian College of Midwives and the Australian Nursing and Midwives Federation, and users of social media (eg, Facebook and Twitter) residing and employed in South Australia. Phase 2 will consist of semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of midwives. These interviews will be undertaken to gain an in-depth understanding of midwives’ views and how confident they feel educating pregnant women after receiving the healthy eating education. Interviews will be face-to-face or conducted by telephone with midwives who have participated in the healthy eating educational program. RESULTS A systematic review has previously been undertaken to inform this study protocol. This paper describes and discusses the protocol for this mixed-methods study, which will be completed in April 2019. CONCLUSIONS The results from the systematic review suggest that there is clear justification to undertake this mixed-methods study to investigate and explore midwives’ knowledge, understanding and confidence to support healthy eating in pregnant women. The results and conclusions from the systematic review provided some guidance for the design and development of this study protocol. This mixed-methods study will address a gap in the literature. The results from quantitative and qualitative data sources in this proposed study will help to draw conclusions to address the research topic. REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER RR1-10.2196/9861

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Parental translation to practice of healthy eating and active play messages and the impact on childhood obesity: a mixed methods study

Obesity Research & Clinical Practice ◽

10.1016/j.orcp.2018.11.072 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 259

Author(s):

Alyssa Huxtable ◽

Jillian Whelan ◽

Lynne Millar ◽

Penny Love ◽

Colin Bell

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Childhood Obesity ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Mixed Methods Study ◽

Active Play ◽

The Impact

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A sequential explanatory mixed methods study design: An example of how to integrate data in a midwifery research project

Journal of Nursing Education and Practice ◽

10.5430/jnep.v11n2p75 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 75

Author(s):

Shwikar Othman ◽

Mary Steen ◽

Julie-Anne Fleet

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Extreme Case ◽

Mixed Methods Study ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Qualitative Approaches ◽

Education Workshop ◽

Explanatory Mixed Methods ◽

Sequential Explanatory

Integration of mixed methods involves bringing together quantitative and qualitative approaches and methodologies. Limited application in midwifery research has identified a need for practical examples. How to integrate two research approaches and methodologies in a sequential explanatory mixed methods study, at the design, methods, interpretation and reporting levels will be explained. This paper describes and discusses an example of how integration was used to develop a better understanding of midwives’ knowledge and confidence after attending a healthy eating education workshop/webinar. This example illustrates how integration can be achieved and emphasises how a weaving technique can be used, and findings are presented in a joint display and extreme case analysis. The sequential explanatory design was adopted to merge and mix different datasets to be collected and analysed. Then, using meta-analysis to identify areas of convergence or discordance, which provided a more comprehensive overview and understanding of the key themes that linked midwives' knowledge and confidence. The application of this mixed methods design assisted in investigating and exploring midwives' knowledge and confidence levels and provided clear insights for midwives needs and the effectiveness of healthy eating education on practice.

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