Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

The last two decades the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has increased significantly globally. Early interventions to reduce weight and prevent further weight increase, has shown to be important to avoid obesity in adult life. Obesity leads to enormous consequences, and encounters reduced quality of life and increased prevalence of lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes, heart-and coronary diseases and cancer When it comes to weight reduction among children, reducing calorie intake of food has shown to be the most effective intervention. In Norway the primary health care has monitor children’ development by measuring height and weight when the children are at age 8 and 13. If the child is identified as overweight, the parents and children are offered a follow-up program, which involves face-to-face consultations with a school nurse. However, a number of families reject participation in this program due to several reasons. In this project we aim to design and implement an online follow-up program for children and their caregivers, to facilitate the lifestyle changes with focus on nutrition and dietary habits. We have conducted an insight study with design-workshops and interviews with various stakeholders, and a digital online application is now under development. During autumn 2019 we will conduct a pilot study where families in the targeted user group are to try out the online application. In the research we share insights and experiences from the pilot study, and how we have used participatory design methods during this case study.