JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Lifestyle interventions for weight loss do not result in long term weight reductions and may contribute to weight stigma, which can be harmful and effect both physical and mental health. Weight neutral health has emerged as an alternative strategy to obtain physical, social, and mental health without an aim of weight loss.

Objective:

This protocol paper outlines the design and procedures for a co-design process developing a weight-neutral health intervention in Denmark. The intervention will be feasibility tested with the aim of later implementation in a Danish municipal setting.

Methods:

The co-design development process will be organised in a participative manner, employing the MRC framework for complex interventions, and structured through four iterative design phases derived from the Human-Centered Design tradition: Discover, Define, Design, and Validate. The study population are end-user representatives, including health professionals with experience from weight-neutral health programmes, people with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 who have participated in an existing weight-neutral health programme, and stakeholders in the municipalities. The development process will be analysed through the perspective of practice theory, with an emphasis on how health is performed.

Results:

Increased knowledge on how to plan, excecute and analyse a co-design development processes of a complex health intervention focusing on weight-neutral health principles.

Conclusions:

We hope to contribute to the growing body-of-knowledge in the field of complex intervention development and. Further we aim to clarify of the potential health benefits of such an intervention, emphasizing its role as a benchmark for future randomized trials. Clinical Trial: This protocol presents the design on an innovative development process of a complex health intervention, engaging all relevant stakeholders to increase compliance and fidelity. As a result, no trial registration has been made. We hope the feasibility study of this intervention can lay as foundation for a following randomized trial. The study will be conducted in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and is registered and approved by the University of Copenhagen (UCPH ethics approval 504-0435/23-5000). The study will adhere to GDPR data and information standards.