From Documents to Digital: Co-Designing Nutrition Information Videos With Consumers and Dietitians

Hospital nutrition care is usually supported by offering written, paper-based information to patients and carers. However, there is a need for evidence-based online information, such as videos, to support education. We aimed to co-design nutrition information videos for current and recently discharged hospital patients and share our process for clinicians and researchers undertaking similar initiatives.

The videos were created by a team of four consumers and six dietitians across Queensland, Australia, who first agreed on the process summarised by a 'Co-design Roadmap'. The roadmap guided the development of the video topics, content and creation. The videos were piloted with 15 rehabilitation inpatients at a metropolitan subacute hospital. Feedback was gained on content and perceived knowledge gain via an anonymous questionnaire. The co-designers completed an anonymous questionnaire to evaluate the process.

Three videos were co-designed for implementation: 'Eating When It's Harder to Eat', 'Eating for Recovery, Health and Wellness' and 'Eating for Stroke Prevention'. Nine patients (60%) who tested the videos reported new learnings, while a further four (27%) felt the videos solidified existing knowledge. Six co-design team members, excluding the project lead, completed the evaluation questionnaire (66% response rate). All respondents strongly agreed that they felt heard, empowered and equal and that they would participate in similar projects.

Three new nutrition videos were co-designed, with learning outcomes reported in pilot testing and a positive co-design experience reported by co-designers. The 'Co-design Roadmap' that guided this project offers a process for others to use when co-creating information materials.

Previous hospital patients and their caregivers (referred to as 'consumers' in this paper) were involved in this co-design project in various ways. Consumers contributed to the development of the 'Co-design Roadmap', which guided the video co-creation process. Four consumers were also co-leads in the video co-creation process alongside clinicians, with details of their contributions included in this manuscript. Consumers also contributed to the analysis of pilot feedback data and the process of making subsequent changes to improve the video content because of these results. Additionally, consumers had input into the preparation of the manuscript for publication.