Design for Health, Wellbeing, and Happiness

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting healthy behaviour: A stages of change perspective on changing snacking habits of children 

Geke Ludden, Laura de Ruijter 

University of Twente (2) 

g.d.s.ludden@utwente.nl

Keywords: design for behaviour change; health; obesity; lifestyle; children

Abstract

Many children today face an environment that presents them with an overabundance of high calorie foods. Combined with more sedentary lifestyles, this has led to increasing numbers of overweight children in many parts of the world. To counter this trend, we need new strategies that can positively alter health behaviours of children. In this paper, we demonstrate how taking a stages of change perspective can support designers in creating products and services that could serve as alternatives to more traditional health interventions such as promotional campaigns. Using the case of changing snacking habits of children, two ranges of product concepts were developed using the design for healthy behaviour framework. The two concept ranges were evaluated by parents of young children. From this study we tentatively conclude that using the design for healthy behaviour framework can lead to more innovative, supporting and effective health interventions. 

This paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.

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Cite this paper: Ludden, G., de Ruijter, L. (2016). Supporting healthy behaviour; A stages of change perspective on changing snacking habits of children . Proceedings of DRS 2016, Design Research Society 50th Anniversary Conference. Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016.

This paper will be presented at DRS2016, find it in the conference programme


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