Oral Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 in conjunction with ENSA

An Implementation Research Logic Model for a kids’ healthy lifestyle program in Boorloo/Perth, WA: determinants, implementation strategies and outcome measures (128037)

Stephen Paull 1 2 3 , Stephanie Smith 1 2 3 , Tania Harris 4 , Joanna C Moullin 5 , Nick Sevdalis 6 , Robyn Mildon 7 , Yvonne C Anderson 1 2 3
  1. Child and Adolescent Community Health, Child and Adolescent Health Service, Perth, WA, Australia
  2. Curtin Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia
  3. The Kids Research Institute Australia, Nedlands, WA, Australia
  4. Health Consumers' Council, Perth, WA
  5. Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia
  6. Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  7. Centre for Evidence and Implementation, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

National and international recommendations to combat the inequitable increase in childhood obesity include multicomponent lifestyle education programs.1,2 Scale-out of evidence-based interventions is notoriously difficult,3 and such programs should be developed in partnership with community and groups disproportionately affected, including the Aboriginal community.1,4

An adaptation of an equitable healthy lifestyle program from Aotearoa/New Zealand is being piloted in East Boorloo/Perth, which includes weight-related health assessments, and 6 months of weekly community-based group education sessions on nutrition, physical activity and wellbeing.5,6

The aim of this implementation study was to consolidate and present the perspectives of Aboriginal community representatives, key partners (including health organisation leaders), and consumers of the pilot program into an Implementation Research Logic Model to enhance the rigor and reproducibility of the program scale-out.7

Data were gathered through a range of methods: a workshop with 29 attendees (28 Elders) from various Aboriginal community groups (April 2024); a workshop with 22 key partners (March 2024); an open-ended survey with 26 additional key partners (September-October 2024); and two focus groups with total 13 program consumers (May 2025). Audio was transcribed verbatim and data analysed using Framework Analysis8 incorporating the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.9,10

Various participant perspectives were obtained including cultural and place-based considerations. Commonly identified implementation facilitators included program design, safe and respectful environment, and urgent demand for the program. Commonly identified barriers included constrained resources, program location, and busy lifestyle of program clients.

Identified determinants for successful local program implementation and outcome measures that would demonstrate program success will be presented in the Implementation Research Logic Model alongside implementation strategies and their expected mechanisms of effect.

The use of the Implementation Research Logic Model will help to visualise the link between key elements of the adapted program as well as guiding implementation of similar future programs.

  1. Commonwealth of Australia. The National Obesity Strategy 2022-2032. Health Ministers Meeting 2022; 2022.
  2. Skinner AC, Staiano AE, Armstrong SC, et al. Appraisal of Clinical Care Practices for Child Obesity Treatment. Part I: Interventions. Pediatrics (Evanston). 2023;151(2):1. doi:10.1542/peds.2022-060642
  3. Bauer MS, Kirchner J. Implementation science: What is it and why should I care? Psychiatry Res. 2020;283:112376. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2019.04.025
  4. United Nations. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. United Nations; 2007. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
  5. Anderson YC, Wynter LE, Grant CC, et al. A Novel Home‐Based Intervention for Child and Adolescent Obesity: The Results of the Whānau Pakari Randomized Controlled Trial. Obesity. 2017;25(11):1965-1973. doi:10.1002/oby.21967
  6. Anderson YC, Wynter LE, Moller KR, et al. The effect of a multi-disciplinary obesity intervention compared to usual practice in those ready to make lifestyle changes: design and rationale of Whanau Pakari. BMC Obesity. 2015;2(1):41. doi:10.1186/s40608-015-0068-y
  7. Smith JD, Li DH, Rafferty MR. The Implementation Research Logic Model: A method for planning, executing, reporting, and synthesizing implementation projects. Implementation Science. 2020;15(1):84. doi:10.1186/s13012-020-01041-8
  8. Ritchie J, Spencer L. Qualitative data analysis for applied policy research. In: Bryman A, Burgess RG, eds. Analyzing qualitative data. Routledge; 2002:173-194:chap 9. doi:10.4324/9780203413081-14
  9. Damschroder LJ, Reardon CM, Widerquist MAO, Lowery J. The updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research based on user feedback. Implementation science. 2022;17(1):1-75. doi:10.1186/s13012-022-01245-0
  10. Smith J, Braithwaite J, O’Brien TA, et al. Re-Imagining the Data Collection and Analysis Research Process by Proposing a Rapid Qualitative Data Collection and Analytic Roadmap Applied to the Dynamic Context of Precision Medicine. International journal of qualitative methods. 2022;21doi:10.1177/16094069221103097