TY - JOUR
T1 - Translating Developmental Origins
T2 - Improving the Health of Women and Their Children Using a Sustainable Approach to Behaviour Change
AU - Barker, Mary
AU - Baird, Janis
AU - Tinati, Tannaze
AU - Vogel, Christina
AU - Strömmer, Sofia
AU - Rose, Taylor
AU - Begum, Rufia
AU - Jarman, Megan
AU - Davies, Jenny
AU - Thompson, Sue
AU - Taylor, Liz
AU - Inskip, Hazel
AU - Cooper, Cyrus
AU - Nutbeam, Don
AU - Lawrence, Wendy
N1 - This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
PY - 2017/3/20
Y1 - 2017/3/20
N2 - Theories of the developmental origins of health and disease imply that optimising the growth and development of babies is an essential route to improving the health of populations. A key factor in the growth of babies is the nutritional status of their mothers. Since women from more disadvantaged backgrounds have poorer quality diets and the worst pregnancy outcomes, they need to be a particular focus. The behavioural sciences have made a substantial contribution to the development of interventions to support dietary changes in disadvantaged women. Translation of such interventions into routine practice is an ideal that is rarely achieved, however. This paper illustrates how re-orientating health and social care services towards an empowerment approach to behaviour change might underpin a new developmental focus to improving long-term health, using learning from a community-based intervention to improve the diets and lifestyles of disadvantaged women. The Southampton Initiative for Health aimed to improve the diets and lifestyles of women of child-bearing age through training health and social care practitioners in skills to support behaviour change. Analysis illustrates the necessary steps in mounting such an intervention: building trust; matching agendas and changing culture. The Southampton Initiative for Health demonstrates that developing sustainable; workable interventions and effective community partnerships; requires commitment beginning long before intervention delivery but is key to the translation of developmental origins research into improvements in human health.
AB - Theories of the developmental origins of health and disease imply that optimising the growth and development of babies is an essential route to improving the health of populations. A key factor in the growth of babies is the nutritional status of their mothers. Since women from more disadvantaged backgrounds have poorer quality diets and the worst pregnancy outcomes, they need to be a particular focus. The behavioural sciences have made a substantial contribution to the development of interventions to support dietary changes in disadvantaged women. Translation of such interventions into routine practice is an ideal that is rarely achieved, however. This paper illustrates how re-orientating health and social care services towards an empowerment approach to behaviour change might underpin a new developmental focus to improving long-term health, using learning from a community-based intervention to improve the diets and lifestyles of disadvantaged women. The Southampton Initiative for Health aimed to improve the diets and lifestyles of women of child-bearing age through training health and social care practitioners in skills to support behaviour change. Analysis illustrates the necessary steps in mounting such an intervention: building trust; matching agendas and changing culture. The Southampton Initiative for Health demonstrates that developing sustainable; workable interventions and effective community partnerships; requires commitment beginning long before intervention delivery but is key to the translation of developmental origins research into improvements in human health.
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/5/1/17
U2 - 10.3390/healthcare5010017
DO - 10.3390/healthcare5010017
M3 - Article
C2 - 28335519
SN - 2227-9032
VL - 5
JO - Healthcare
JF - Healthcare
IS - 1
M1 - 17
ER -