Mary Elizabeth Barker

• Wills, Andrew Keith; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Van Lippevelde, Wendy; Barker, Mary Elizabeth; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2024). Preconception diet in adolescence and its association with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and preterm birth. Results from The HUNT study. British Journal of Nutrition. ISSN 0007-1145. p. 1–8. doi: 10.1017/S0007114524000746.
• Medin, Anine Christine; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård; Helle, Christine; Helland, Sissel Heidi; Wills, Andrew Keith & Osorio, Natalie Garzon [Show all 22 contributors for this article] (2024). Scaling up evidence-based digital early life nutrition interventions in a county setting: an implementation trial – protocol for Phase 2 of the Nutrition Now project. Frontiers in Public Health. ISSN 2296-2565. 11. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1326787. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background: Few effective health interventions transition from smaller efficacy or effectiveness studies to real-world implementation at scale, representing a gap between evidence and practice. Recognising this, we have developed Nutrition Now – a tailored digital resource building on four efficacious dietary interventions, aiming to improve nutrition in the important first 1,000 days of life. Nutrition Now targets and guides expectant parents and parents of 0–2 year olds, serves as a reliable source of evidence-based information for midwives and public health nurses at maternal and child healthcare (MCH) centres, and offers pedagogical tools for early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff. The aim of this study is to implement Nutrition Now at scale and evaluate the impact of different sets of multifaceted implementation strategies on implementation outcomes. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with three study arms will be used, providing either low, medium or high implementation support, when rolled out in 50 municipalities in 2 counties in Norway. Nutrition Now will be implemented in MCH and ECEC settings and made available to expectant parents and parents of 0–2 year olds through social media and MCH. The implementation support builds on strategies described in the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) implementation framework and is informed by dialogues with stakeholders. Impact of the different degree of implementation support will be assessed by examining reach, adoption, fidelity, and sustainability using usage data generated from the Nutrition Now resource, publicly available municipal data and qualitative interviews with MCH and ECEC staff. Discussion: Nutrition Now Phase 2 will break new ground by scaling up successively delivered and complementary dietary interventions in the first 1,000 days of life in a real-life context. The project also seeks to identify what level of implementation support is most effective when implementing digital, scalable, evidence-based early-life nutrition interventions in community settings. The project will inform implementation research and provide knowledge about effective implementation strategies to be used in a national scale-up of Nutrition Now. Trial registration: The study is registered prospectively (submitted 14/06/2022, registration date: 19/06/2022) in the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry (ISRCTN): reg. Number: ISRCTN10694967, https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN10694967.

• Valen, Erlend Nuland; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Hardy-Johnson, Polly; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård; Salvesen, Lorentz & Omholt, Mona Linge [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). Lessons learned from talking with adults about nutrition: A qualitative study in the PREPARED project. Maternal & Child Nutrition. ISSN 1740-8695. doi: 10.1111/mcn.13540. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Improving diet and dietary behaviour of men and women before pregnancy has thepotential to benefit both their current and long‐term health and the health of theirchildren. Little is known, however, about adults' perception of diet's role inprepregnancy health. This study aimed to explore the state of knowledge andawareness of preconception nutritional health in adults within the fertile age rangeand what they perceived could motivate healthy eating using the self‐determinationtheory as a theoretical framework. We analysed 33 short exploratory interviewswith men (n= 18) and women (n= 15) aged 18–45 years. Participants were grabsampled from three different public locations in the southern part of Norway.Interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim in 2020 and analysed using athematic analysis with a semantic approach in 2022. The findings suggest that adultswithin the fertile age range are not intrinsically motivated to eat healthily, but whenthey do, it is because eating healthily often aligns with other goals consistent withtheir values, that is, getting fit or looking good. They possess some basic knowledgeof healthy behaviours during pregnancy but are generally unaware of the importanceof preconception health and nutrition. There is a need to increase awareness ofthe impact of preconception health on the health of this and future generations.Improved nutritional education on the significance of diet before conception mightfacilitate optimal conditions for conceiving and for pregnancy in the adult populationwithin fertile age range.

• Valand, Ida Ulrikke; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Strömmer, Sofia; Barker, Mary Elizabeth; Bjornes, Camilla & Nordli, Julie [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2022). “It is really just brilliant to get credits for something that is so important to you!” Skills for Life: University students’ perceptions of a planned dietary life skills course. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 17(4). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260890. Full text in Research Archive
• Helland, Sissel Heidi; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Blomkvist, Eli Anne Myrvoll; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Strømmer, Sofia & Barker, Mary Elizabeth [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2021). Wow! They really like celeriac! Kindergarten teachers' experiences of an intervention to increase 1-year-olds' acceptance of vegetables. Appetite. ISSN 0195-6663. 166. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105581. Full text in Research Archive
• Illøkken, Kristine Engebretsen; Johannessen, Berit; Barker, Mary Elizabeth; Hardy-Johnson, Polly; Øverby, Nina Cecilie & Vik, Frøydis Nordgård (2021). Free school meals as an opportunity to target social equality, healthy eating, and school functioning: experiences from students and teachers in Norway. Food & Nutrition Research (FNR). ISSN 1654-6628. 65. doi: 10.29219/fnr.v65.7702. Full text in Research Archive

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• Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Helland, Sissel Heidi; Helle, Christine; Wills, Andrew Keith & Lamu, Admassu Nadew [Show all 23 contributors for this article] (2023). Evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based early-life nutrition interventions in a community setting a hybrid type 1 non-randomized trial – the Nutrition Now project protocol. Frontiers in Endocrinology. ISSN 1664-2392. 13. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.1071489. Full text in Research Archive

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