Codesigning the South Asian Diet and Activity Intervention (SADAI): process and outcomes

This study outlines the development of a codesigned, coproduced intervention to address the high risk of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCD) among South Asians (SA) in New Zealand. The objectives were to identify: (1) reasons, concerns and perceptions influencing dietary changes post-migration; (2) preferred formats and delivery modes for the intervention; (3) intervention design features; (4) community volunteers for coproduction; and (5) coproduce the intervention components.

Participatory Action Research.

SA communities in Auckland and Dunedin, New Zealand.

SA immigrants aged 25-59 years. Ten telephone or face-to-face interviews were conducted between 2018 and 2019. Following this, one codesign workshop (n 12) was conducted with the target population and community stakeholders in 2019.

Thematic analysis revealed factors such as children's preference for boxed cereals and limited time for traditional breakfasts contributed to poor dietary habits. Concerns included meal timing and long-term weight gain, while perceptions such as all home-cooked food is healthy, influenced a lack of concern for long-term health. Preferred formats were educational comics and video clips, with digital platforms as the delivery mode. The workshop helped choose comic characters and identify community members to coproduce video content. The final intervention included eleven comics, eight videos, twelve audio clips and eighteen scientific snippets, organised into five dietary and one physical activity module.

A participatory approach proved feasible for codesigning a culturally tailored lifestyle intervention to address diet-NCD risks in the SA diaspora in New Zealand.