Exploring healthcare professionals’ views of the acceptability of delivering interventions to promote healthy infant feeding practices within primary care: a qualitative interview study

Abstract

Objective: Early-life nutrition plays a key role in establishing healthy lifestyles and preventing chronic disease. This study aimed to (1) explore healthcare professionals’ (HCP) opinions on the acceptability of and factors influencing the delivery of interventions to promote healthy infant feeding behaviours within primary care and (2) identify proposed barriers/enablers to delivering such interventions during vaccination visits, to inform the development of a childhood obesity prevention intervention. Design: A qualitative study design was employed using semi-structured telephone interviews. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis; findings were also mapped to the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA). Setting: Primary care in Ireland Participants: Twenty-one primary care-based HCP: five practice nurses, seven general practitioners, three public health nurses, three community dietitians and three community medical officers. Results: The acceptability of delivering interventions to promote healthy infant feeding within primary care is influenced by the availability of resources, HCP’s roles and priorities, and factors relating to communication and relationships between HCP and parents. Proposed barriers and enablers to delivering interventions within vaccination visits include time constraints v. opportunistic access, existing relationships and trust between parents and practice nurses, and potential communication issues. Barriers/enablers mapped to TFA constructs of Affective Attitude, Perceived Effectiveness and Self-Efficacy. Conclusions: This study provides a valuable insight into HCP perspectives of delivering prevention-focused infant feeding interventions within primary care settings. While promising, factors such as coordination and clarity of HCP roles and resource allocation need to be addressed to ensure acceptability of interventions to HCP involved in delivery.

Exploring patient acceptability of a short‐stay care pathway in hospital post arthroplasty: A theory‐informed qualitative study

“…The TFA comprises seven constructs 13 (Table 1 presents TFA constructs and definitions). The TFA has been used successfully in other (nonsurgical) contexts to identify components that could be addressed to enhance acceptability, such as nurse‐led reviews of inflammatory rheumatological conditions, postnatal exercise and infant feeding practices 14–16 . It has also been applied in a small number of surgical contexts such as maternal–foetal surgery and intravitreal injections for macular degeneration 17,18 .…”

“…The TFA has been used successfully in other (nonsurgical) contexts to identify components that could be addressed to enhance acceptability, such as nurse‐led reviews of inflammatory rheumatological conditions, postnatal exercise and infant feeding practices. 14 , 15 , 16 It has also been applied in a small number of surgical contexts such as maternal–foetal surgery and intravitreal injections for macular degeneration. 17 , 18 The TFA has not yet been used in acceptability studies relating to arthroplasty or short‐stay models of care.…”

Investigating group-based classes (‘weaning workshops’) to support complementary infant feeding in Irish primary care settings: A cross-sectional survey

“…Other studies have identified factors which are associated with the success of parenting programmes including parental attitudes towards programme content, changes in parenting skills and confidence, and positive experiences of the group process (26)(27)(28). In the context of early child nutrition, group-based programmes focusing on complementary feeding, or 'weaning workshops', have been suggested as a promising approach to target infant feeding practices (12,21,23,24,29,30). Such programmes are workshop-style events that can target several important aspects for effective community-based interventions, e.g.…”

Investigating group-based classes (‘weaning workshops’) to support complementary infant feeding in Irish primary care settings: a cross-sectional survey

“…Primary care represents a promising setting for such interventions given its community-based context and an increasing global focus on health promotion and disease prevention within primary care practice (18)(19)(20) . Given their expertise, community dietitians may have an important role to play in interventions that aim to improve healthy infant feeding; however, recent research has highlighted limited capacity amongst dietitians to prioritise preventive-focused interventions over complex clinical issues such as feeding challenges or problems (21) .…”

“…Other studies have identified factors which are associated with the success of parenting programmes including parental attitudes towards programme content, changes in parenting skills and confidence and positive experiences of the group process (26)(27)(28) . In the context of early child nutrition, group-based programmes focusing on complementary feeding, or 'weaning workshops', have been suggested as a promising approach to target infant feeding practices (10,21,23,24,29,30) . Such programmes focus on individualor family-level behaviour change through a number of home visits, individual counselling or group sessions in a clinical or community setting targeting several important aspects e.g.…”