Richard Ball

Background: Parents frequently seek parental advice online and on social media; thus, these channels should be better utilized in child health interventions. The Parents in Child Nutrition Informing Community (PICNIC) program aims to facilitate peer-to-peer sharing of evidence-based child feeding information and support parents within their social networks. The present study aimed to explore web and social media analytics to evaluate reach and user engagement with the PICNIC online components.Methods: Online user activity data from the PICNIC Facebook closed group and public Page were collected through Facebook Insights, and program-specific website traffic data through Google Analytics. Analytics data from Nov-2019 to April-2021 was evaluated through visualisation and summary statistics to obtain insights into program growth and current reach in Australia, compare demographics of audience reached through the online channels, and explore parents’ use and engagement in PICNIC content.Results: Results showed steady program growth in the 18 months of recruitment; participant numbers grew from 102 to 261 peer educators while the Facebook Page audience increased threefold, totalling 1615 followers. Intervention posts shared on Facebook (4–5 posts/week) typically reached only a portion of PICNIC Page followers each week, but also reached a wider audience through their friends. Throughout the evaluated period, Facebook users actively engaged in PICNIC posts, although the level of engagement varied considerably from post to post. Furthermore, results from this study suggest the strategy of directing potentially interested parents from social media to the website for program sign-up was successful. Finally, the explored data gave insights into users’ availability, demographics and engagement, which will be used to inform refinement of the PICNIC website and social media strategies.Conclusions: Our findings confirm the benefits of using a peer education approach and existing social network channels to disseminate evidence-based child feeding information to parents. This study also demonstrates the usefulness of web and social media analytics to be used as part of a continuous evaluation for gaining insight to inform further development and improvement of program strategies.Trial registration: The PICNIC project was retrospectively submitted for registration with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR),ACTRN12622000230752(09/02/2022).

This study investigated the implementation model and research methods of a peer education program for new parents focused on infant feeding and nutrition. Two hundred and sixty-nine parents with an infant aged birth to two years old were invited to become co-researchers in a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study over three years. Data included focus group and online participant meeting transcripts, social media data, correspondence between the implementation team and peer educators, and field notes. All data were consolidated regularly and discussed by project participants and the research team. After each PAR cycle, structured content analysis was conducted, informing the next iteration of the implementation model and research methods. Participating parents were highly engaged in child feeding peer-to-peer education, but felt more effective and comfortable being considered as a child-feeding information resource sharer or ‘champion’ rather than a formal peer educator. Similarly, quantitative data collection was only effective when it was integrated seamlessly into the implementation model. PAR methodology suited the diversity and dynamic real-life study setting, facilitating substantial improvements to the peer nutrition intervention model and data collection methods. Our study demonstrated that a genuine collaboration between health professionals and participants to implement research in practice can achieve both intervention outcomes and research aims.

One in five Australian pre-schoolers are overweight or obese, meaning the first years of life are vital for obesity primary prevention. Parent child feeding practices impact on children’s dietary intake, which in turn impacts on their weight status. Parents’ child feeding beliefs are heavily influenced by parenting peers. The aim of this cohort study is to evaluate the impact of the Parents in Child Nutrition Informing Community (PICNIC) study on parents feeding practices and diet quality. The secondary outcomes are the perceptions of trained peer educators and education recipients based on their involvement in PICNIC. One hundred parents with a child aged 0–2 years at time of recruitment will participate in peer educator training, then disseminate nutrition and child feeding content to other parents over an intervention period of 12 months, supported by project-specific, evidence-based social media pages and website. An additional 100 new parents, recruited by peer educators, will participate in the study as nutrition education recipients. Both peer educators and education recipients will complete quantitative child feeding surveys before and during the 12 month intervention and a dietary intake survey at a time point 12 months post intervention. Following the intervention, 30 education recipients will be asked to participate in semi-structured phone interviews about their experiences with PICNIC. Peer educators will contribute as co-researchers and active participants in the evolution of the PICNIC model. This study will contribute to enhanced understanding of contemporary health literacy strategies for communicating nutrition and feeding messages to new parents and the impact of these strategies on parents feeding practices and children’s dietary intake in a community setting.