Co-designing nutrition interventions with consumers: a scoping review

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is little known about nutrition intervention research involving consumer co-design. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and synthesise the existing evidence on the current use and extent of consumer co-design in nutrition interventions.

METHODS: This scoping review is in line with the methodological framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley and refined by the Joanna Briggs Institute using an adapted 2weekSR approach. We searched Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Cochrane. Only studies that included consumers in the co-design and met the 'Collaborate' or 'Empower' levels of the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum were included. Studies were synthesised according to two main concepts: (1) co-design for (2) nutrition interventions.

RESULTS: The initial search yielded 8157 articles from which 19 studies were included (comprising of 29 articles). The studies represented a range of intervention types and participants from seven countries. Sixteen of the studies were published in the past five years. Co-design was most often used for the intervention development and only two studies reported a partnership with consumers across all stages of the research. Overall, consumer involvement was not well documented. There was no preferred co-design framework or approach reported across the various studies.

CONCLUSION: Consumer co-design for nutrition interventions has become more frequent in recent years but genuine partnerships with consumers across all stages of nutrition intervention research remain uncommon. There is an opportunity to improve the reporting of consumer involvement in co-design and enable equal partnerships with consumers in nutrition research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.