Understanding preconception women’s needs and preferences for digital health resources using co-design (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Improving preconception health can benefit all women, their children and families, regardless of their individual pregnancy intentions. OBJECTIVE Explore how women engage with digital health resources and online platforms to inform the design and development of a digital health resource to support women to make positive behaviour change for their preconception health. METHODS This co-design research followed the Double Diamond process. Phase one, contextualisation and explorative processes to develop a design brief, was undertaken via a series of in-depth interviews with female participants (n = 12) aged 18-45 years over three months. Community advisors (n = 8) provided feedback throughout the process. Qualitative analyses of transcripts from interviews was undertaken by two researchers before a deductive process identified themes mapped to the COM-B framework. RESULTS Nine themes and eight sub-themes were identified. Participants were already engaging with a range of digital health resources and had high expectations of these. Digital health resources needed to be easy to access, make women’s busy lives easier, be evidence-based, and be reputable. Social connectedness was also highly important to our participants, with information and advice from peers with similar experiences being preferred over yet more online health information. CONCLUSIONS Co-designed digital health resources should be evidence-based, reputable and easy to access. Social connections were considered highly important to women and designers of digital health resources should consider how they can increase opportunities for women to connect and learn from each other to promote health behaviours.