None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The primary objective of this study is to determine whether including health information on social networking sites improves how postpartum women feel about their bodies. Secondary objectives include determining whether including health information ‘more frequently’ versus ‘less frequently’ also impacts how women feel and whether social networking sites are an acceptable platform for conveying health information to women in the postpartum period. We hypothesise that the inclusion of health information will serve to interrupt the flow of harmful ‘idealistic’ imagery typical of social networking sites and have a positive impact on how postpartum women feel about their bodies. We also hypothesise that social networking sites will be viewed as an acceptable platform for receiving health information.
Interventions
This is a single blinded three-arm randomised experimental study. All of the three experimental groups will be exposed to 15 Instagram images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity. However, only two of the groups will also be exposed to images focused on an aspect of postpartum health information, either infrequently (5 images) or more frequently (15 images).
This intervention will be delivered online via REDCap. Participants will scan the study QR code to read the study information
This is a single blinded three-arm randomised experimental study. All of the three experimental groups will be exposed to 15 Instagram images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity. However, only two of the groups will also be exposed to images focused on an aspect of postpartum health information, either infrequently (5 images) or more frequently (15 images). This intervention will be delivered online via REDCap. Participants will scan the study QR code to read the study information sheet, and if willing to participate in the study, will be able to immediately begin completing their questionnaire (implied consent). In total, the questionnaire will take approximately 30-minutes to complete. The first part of the questionnaire will ask participants about key demographic information, as well as details about their social networking site use, whether they access health information on these sites, whether they would like to access health information on these sites, what type of health information they would like included on these sites, and their current exercising and dieting habits. The second part of the questionnaire will investigate how women view their bodies, and how exposure to images captured from Instagram impacts this. This will involve answering questions about their views towards their body before and after viewing images captured from Instagram to determine their body satisfaction and body appreciation. For the second part of the questionnaire, participants will be randomised (at the time of competition) to one of three experimental conditions, whereby they will be exposed to their allocated set of images as follows: Group 1: 15 Instagram images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity, Group 2: 15 Instagram images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity PLUS 5 images focused on an aspect of postpartum health information, and Group 3: 15 Instagram images of women with a thin-average level of adiposity PLUS 15 images focused on an aspect of postpartum health information. One of the questions will prompt participants to click on a link that will take them to a video of their allocated group's images. Each image will be displayed for 7 seconds. To ensure attention, participants will be asked to indicate approximately how many of the images were of women and how many included health information, i.e. "none", "about one quarter", "about half", "about three quarters" or "all of them".
Sponsors
Dr Megan Gow
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 44 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
1. Australian-residing women 2. Given birth within the last 2 years 3. Aged 18-years and older 4. Access to a phone or computer with internet access
Exclusion criteria
1. Low English proficiency 2. Women who cannot provide informed consent
Outcome results
None listed