Process of developing text messages on healthy eating and physical activity for Chilean mothers with overweight or obese preschool children to be delivered via WhatsApp

Abstract

Background: Chile has a very high prevalence of childhood obesity; 25% among 4-5y olds. Numerous school-based strategies have been implemented with no lasting improvement. Given that parents are key in obesity prevention and that their participation in programs is low, mobile technology is increasingly being used to test its effectiveness in changing children's behavior. Objective: to report the process of developing text messages for Chilean mothers of low socioeconomic status with overweight or obese preschool children. Methodology: The process involved 3 stages: (a) initial elaboration of 60 messages on healthy eating and physical activity (b) 3 focus groups which included similar participants as the target population and (c) consensus on the final messages obtained from 56 experts, using the Delphi technique. Results: a list of 40 text messages encouraging healthy eating and promotion of physical activity which underwent a rigorous process are ready to be delivered via WhatsApp to low-income mothers of overweight preschool children. Conclusion: this process constitutes the first stage; effectiveness of these messages to produce behavior change on the children has yet to be determined. We suggest that effectiveness be assessed as a tool by itself or supporting strategies already in place system.