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Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention

BACKGROUND: Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain are associated with adverse maternal and foetal health outcomes. Interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviours during pregnancy have typically been directed at women only. A digital intervention targeting couples c...

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Autores principales: Rhodes, Alexandra, Smith, Andrea D., Llewellyn, Clare H., Croker, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8237776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34182953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03917-z
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author Rhodes, Alexandra
Smith, Andrea D.
Llewellyn, Clare H.
Croker, Helen
author_facet Rhodes, Alexandra
Smith, Andrea D.
Llewellyn, Clare H.
Croker, Helen
author_sort Rhodes, Alexandra
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain are associated with adverse maternal and foetal health outcomes. Interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviours during pregnancy have typically been directed at women only. A digital intervention targeting couples could encourage expectant parents to support each other in improving energy balance (dietary and physical activity) behaviours. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the role partners play in pregnant women’s energy balance behaviours, and to identify barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital intervention to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in pregnancy. METHODS: A qualitative design combined online focus groups and telephone interviews. Three focus groups were held with men (n = 15) and one mini focus group (n = 3) and 12 telephone interviews were conducted with women. Participants were either in the last trimester of pregnancy or had a baby under 18 months old. Most were from more deprived population groups where prevalence of maternal obesity is higher. Data were analysed thematically. Barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital intervention were mapped to the COM-B model and the Theoretical Domains Framework. RESULTS: Four main themes were identified; partner involvement and support; partner understanding of good energy balance behaviours; couple concordance of energy balance behaviours; partner influence on her energy balance behaviours. Most facilitators to participating in a digital intervention as a couple fell within the Reflective Motivation domain of COM-B. Men were motivated by the desire to be supportive partners and good role models. Women were motivated by their belief that partner involvement would improve their success in achieving goals and enhance couple-bonding. Other facilitators included concordance in dietary behaviours (Physical Opportunity), healthcare practitioner recommendation, perceptions of pregnancy as ‘ours’ (Social Opportunity) and feeling supported and involved (Automatic Motivation). Barriers were rarely mentioned but included potential for partner conflict, perceptions of pregnancy as ‘hers’ and economic constraints. CONCLUSIONS: An opportunity exists to harness partner support to improve maternal energy balance behaviours. Barriers and facilitators to participating in a digital intervention as a couple indicate its potential to benefit emotional and relationship wellbeing in addition to physical health.
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spelling pubmed-82377762021-06-28 Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention Rhodes, Alexandra Smith, Andrea D. Llewellyn, Clare H. Croker, Helen BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research BACKGROUND: Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain are associated with adverse maternal and foetal health outcomes. Interventions targeting dietary and physical activity behaviours during pregnancy have typically been directed at women only. A digital intervention targeting couples could encourage expectant parents to support each other in improving energy balance (dietary and physical activity) behaviours. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the role partners play in pregnant women’s energy balance behaviours, and to identify barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital intervention to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in pregnancy. METHODS: A qualitative design combined online focus groups and telephone interviews. Three focus groups were held with men (n = 15) and one mini focus group (n = 3) and 12 telephone interviews were conducted with women. Participants were either in the last trimester of pregnancy or had a baby under 18 months old. Most were from more deprived population groups where prevalence of maternal obesity is higher. Data were analysed thematically. Barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital intervention were mapped to the COM-B model and the Theoretical Domains Framework. RESULTS: Four main themes were identified; partner involvement and support; partner understanding of good energy balance behaviours; couple concordance of energy balance behaviours; partner influence on her energy balance behaviours. Most facilitators to participating in a digital intervention as a couple fell within the Reflective Motivation domain of COM-B. Men were motivated by the desire to be supportive partners and good role models. Women were motivated by their belief that partner involvement would improve their success in achieving goals and enhance couple-bonding. Other facilitators included concordance in dietary behaviours (Physical Opportunity), healthcare practitioner recommendation, perceptions of pregnancy as ‘ours’ (Social Opportunity) and feeling supported and involved (Automatic Motivation). Barriers were rarely mentioned but included potential for partner conflict, perceptions of pregnancy as ‘hers’ and economic constraints. CONCLUSIONS: An opportunity exists to harness partner support to improve maternal energy balance behaviours. Barriers and facilitators to participating in a digital intervention as a couple indicate its potential to benefit emotional and relationship wellbeing in addition to physical health. BioMed Central 2021-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8237776/ /pubmed/34182953 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03917-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Rhodes, Alexandra
Smith, Andrea D.
Llewellyn, Clare H.
Croker, Helen
Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title_full Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title_fullStr Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title_full_unstemmed Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title_short Investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
title_sort investigating partner involvement in pregnancy and identifying barriers and facilitators to participating as a couple in a digital healthy eating and physical activity intervention
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8237776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34182953
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-021-03917-z
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