Cargando…

Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death (63%) worldwide. A key behavioral risk factor is unhealthy eating. New strategies must be identified and evaluated to improve dietary habits. Social media, such as blogs, represent a unique opportunity for improving knowledge translation in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique, Provencher, Veronique, Lapointe, Annie, Dugrenier, Marilyn, Dumas, Audrée-Anne, Pluye, Pierre, Straus, Sharon, Gagnon, Marie-Pierre, Desroches, Sophie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4407018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25858777
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3504
_version_ 1782367844892147712
author Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique
Provencher, Veronique
Lapointe, Annie
Dugrenier, Marilyn
Dumas, Audrée-Anne
Pluye, Pierre
Straus, Sharon
Gagnon, Marie-Pierre
Desroches, Sophie
author_facet Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique
Provencher, Veronique
Lapointe, Annie
Dugrenier, Marilyn
Dumas, Audrée-Anne
Pluye, Pierre
Straus, Sharon
Gagnon, Marie-Pierre
Desroches, Sophie
author_sort Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death (63%) worldwide. A key behavioral risk factor is unhealthy eating. New strategies must be identified and evaluated to improve dietary habits. Social media, such as blogs, represent a unique opportunity for improving knowledge translation in health care through interactive communication between health consumers and health professionals. Despite the proliferation of food and lifestyle blogs, no research has been devoted to understanding potential blog readers’ perceptions of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians. OBJECTIVE: To identify women’s salient beliefs and perceptions regarding the use of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians promoting the improvement of their dietary habits. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study with female Internet users living in the Quebec City, QC, area with suboptimal dietary habits. First, the women explored 4 existing healthy eating blogs written in French by qualified dietitians. At a focus group 2-4 weeks later, they were asked to discuss their experience and perceptions. Focus group participants were grouped by age (18-34, 35-54, and 55-75 years) and by their use of social media (users/nonusers). Using a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, participants were asked to identify salient beliefs underlying their attitudes (advantages/disadvantages), subjective norms (what people important to them would think), and perceptions of control (facilitators/barriers) regarding the use of a healthy eating blog written by a dietitian to improve dietary habits. Discussion groups were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and a deductive content analysis was performed independently by 2 individuals using the NVivo software (version 10). RESULTS: All participants (N=33) were Caucasian women aged between 22 to 73 year. Main advantages perceived of using healthy eating blogs written by a dietitian were that they provided useful recipe ideas, improved lifestyle, were a credible source of information, and allowed interaction with a dietitian. Disadvantages included increased time spent on the Internet and guilt if recommendations were not followed. Important people who would approve were family, colleagues, and friends. Important people who could disapprove were family and doctors. Main facilitators were visually attractive blogs, receiving an email notification about new posts, and finding new information on the blog. Main barriers were too much text, advertising on the blog, and lack of time. CONCLUSIONS: The women in this study valued the credibility of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians and the contact with dietitians they provided. Identifying salient beliefs underlying women’s perceptions of using such blogs provides an empirically supported basis for the design of knowledge translation interventions to help prevent chronic diseases.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4407018
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher JMIR Publications Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-44070182015-04-28 Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique Provencher, Veronique Lapointe, Annie Dugrenier, Marilyn Dumas, Audrée-Anne Pluye, Pierre Straus, Sharon Gagnon, Marie-Pierre Desroches, Sophie J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death (63%) worldwide. A key behavioral risk factor is unhealthy eating. New strategies must be identified and evaluated to improve dietary habits. Social media, such as blogs, represent a unique opportunity for improving knowledge translation in health care through interactive communication between health consumers and health professionals. Despite the proliferation of food and lifestyle blogs, no research has been devoted to understanding potential blog readers’ perceptions of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians. OBJECTIVE: To identify women’s salient beliefs and perceptions regarding the use of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians promoting the improvement of their dietary habits. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study with female Internet users living in the Quebec City, QC, area with suboptimal dietary habits. First, the women explored 4 existing healthy eating blogs written in French by qualified dietitians. At a focus group 2-4 weeks later, they were asked to discuss their experience and perceptions. Focus group participants were grouped by age (18-34, 35-54, and 55-75 years) and by their use of social media (users/nonusers). Using a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, participants were asked to identify salient beliefs underlying their attitudes (advantages/disadvantages), subjective norms (what people important to them would think), and perceptions of control (facilitators/barriers) regarding the use of a healthy eating blog written by a dietitian to improve dietary habits. Discussion groups were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and a deductive content analysis was performed independently by 2 individuals using the NVivo software (version 10). RESULTS: All participants (N=33) were Caucasian women aged between 22 to 73 year. Main advantages perceived of using healthy eating blogs written by a dietitian were that they provided useful recipe ideas, improved lifestyle, were a credible source of information, and allowed interaction with a dietitian. Disadvantages included increased time spent on the Internet and guilt if recommendations were not followed. Important people who would approve were family, colleagues, and friends. Important people who could disapprove were family and doctors. Main facilitators were visually attractive blogs, receiving an email notification about new posts, and finding new information on the blog. Main barriers were too much text, advertising on the blog, and lack of time. CONCLUSIONS: The women in this study valued the credibility of healthy eating blogs written by dietitians and the contact with dietitians they provided. Identifying salient beliefs underlying women’s perceptions of using such blogs provides an empirically supported basis for the design of knowledge translation interventions to help prevent chronic diseases. JMIR Publications Inc. 2015-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4407018/ /pubmed/25858777 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3504 Text en ©Véronique Bissonnette-Maheux, Veronique Provencher, Annie Lapointe, Marilyn Dugrenier, Audrée-Anne Dumas, Pierre Pluye, Sharon Straus, Marie-Pierre Gagnon, Sophie Desroches. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 08.04.2015. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Bissonnette-Maheux, Véronique
Provencher, Veronique
Lapointe, Annie
Dugrenier, Marilyn
Dumas, Audrée-Anne
Pluye, Pierre
Straus, Sharon
Gagnon, Marie-Pierre
Desroches, Sophie
Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title_full Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title_short Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study
title_sort exploring women’s beliefs and perceptions about healthy eating blogs: a qualitative study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4407018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25858777
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3504
work_keys_str_mv AT bissonnettemaheuxveronique exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT provencherveronique exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT lapointeannie exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT dugreniermarilyn exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT dumasaudreeanne exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT pluyepierre exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT straussharon exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT gagnonmariepierre exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy
AT desrochessophie exploringwomensbeliefsandperceptionsabouthealthyeatingblogsaqualitativestudy