JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The early life course, i.e. from preconception up and until the first 1000 days of life, is pivotal for optimizing parental and child health. Health disparities before and during pregnancy exacerbate when support to change unfavorable lifestyle behaviors and coping with poor mental health is limited.

Objective:

To support (pre) pregnant couples and young families living in a socially deprived neighborhood by developing and implementing a sustainable, socially integrated and ethically justified digital platform serving as Our Smart Family Buddy (OSFB) for improving nutritional behaviors and coping with mental stress.

Methods:

A transdisciplinary, quadruple helix consortium of academics, businesses, municipality, networks, community organizations, and (pre) pregnant couples and young families needs to be built to reach, co-create and evaluate OSFB in a deprived neighborhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Based on existing knowledge and evidence-based digital lifestyle interventions for our target population, the consortium will co-create the socially embedded digital platform OSFB. The OSFB research program comprises six work packages: WP1 will review existing eHealth tools for (pre) pregnant couples and young families and implementation strategies; WP2 will create field labs to facilitate societal embedding of OSFB; WP3 will investigate qualitatively the needs and preferences of the (pre)) pregnant couples and young families and in co-design the OSFB platform concept; WP4 will focus on the responsible and context-sensitive development of AI functionalities for stress reduction and lifestyle improvement; WP5 will develop an ethical framework for guiding the development and implementation, and WP6 will evaluate and implement the OSFB-prototype and disseminate the outcomes of the program.

Results:

In the first two years we have built a large transdisciplinary quadruple helix consortium connecting with several initiatives and projects in the deprived neighborhoods of IJsselmonde, a district in Rotterdam. Exploratory interviews with the target population and other stakeholders were held, and existing literature has been reviewed. As potential functionalities of OSFB platform, the digital lifestyle screening tool for young families (FLYkids) and the digital preconception lifestyle coaching program (Pregnant Faster) were further developed and evaluated.

Conclusions:

Here, we describe the protocol and first insights for developing, evaluating and implementing the OSFB platform prototype for improving nutrition and stress among (pre) pregnant couples and young families. Building a large consortium embedded in a deprived neighborhood in a big city requires strong local partnerships and alignment of the six interrelated work packages. Interviews with the target population and involved networks and organizations provided valuable insights into their reach, values and needs, which will guide the provision, development and implementation of the OSFB prototype in the following four years.