Background: The Choosing Healthy Eating for Infant Health (CHErIsH) intervention is an infant feeding intervention that was delivered at infant vaccination visits in primary care. The intervention targeted parent-level behaviour change and consisted of verbal infant feeding messages and trustworthy resources delivered by health care professionals (HCPs) (e.g., written information, bib, magnet) (1). A HCP level implementation strategy was also developed to support HCPs to deliver the parent-level intervention. The strategy targeted HCP-level behaviour change and consisted of local opinion leaders, incentivised training, educational materials, electronic prompts, awareness-raising, and technical support (2). Understanding the feasibility of implementation of the CHErIsH parent-level intervention and implementation strategy is important to understand how well such programmes can work in practice.
Aim: To understand HCPs experiences and perceptions of the implementation of the CHErIsH parent-level intervention and implementation strategy in practice.
Methods: A secondary qualitative analysis of previously conducted semi-structured focus group data will be conducted. Focus groups were conducted with HCPs in Mallow Primary Care Centre in the South of Ireland who delivered the CHErIsH parent-level intervention and received the implementation strategy. HCPs were asked about their experiences and perspectives of the feasibility of the intervention and implementation strategy. Data will be analysed using reflexive Thematic Analysis.
What the work is expected to establish: This research will provide insights into what HCPs think of the implementation of an infant feeding intervention for childhood obesity, and accompanying implementation strategy, in primary care practice. Findings will identify potential areas of additional training for HCPs, provide greater understanding of contextual influences on intervention implementation, and HCPs beliefs about the quality of the intervention delivery, capacity, and resources needed to deliver the intervention.