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Feed Safe: a multidisciplinary partnership approach results in a successful mobile application for breastfeeding mothers
Author(s) -
White Becky,
White James,
Giglia Roslyn,
Tawia Susan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1071/he15114
Subject(s) - general partnership , multidisciplinary approach , health promotion , population health , community health , medicine , public relations , best practice , promotion (chess) , dissemination , population , knowledge management , business , public health , nursing , computer science , environmental health , political science , telecommunications , finance , politics , law
Issue addressed Mobile applications are increasingly being used in health promotion initiatives. Although there is evidence that developing these mobile health applications in multidisciplinary teams is good practice, there is a gap in the literature with respect to evaluation of the process of this partnership model and how best to disseminate the application into the community. The aim of this paper is twofold, to describe the partnership model in which the Feed Safe application was developed and to investigate what worked in terms of dissemination. Methods The process of working in partnership was measured using the VicHealth partnership analysis tool for health promotion. The dissemination strategy and reach of the application was measured using both automated analytics data and estimates of community‐initiated promotion. Results The combined average score from the partnership analysis tool was 138 out of a possible 175. A multipronged dissemination strategy led to good uptake of the application among Australian women. Conclusions Multidisciplinary partnership models are important in the development of health promotion mobile applications. Recognising and utilising the skills of each partner organisation can help expand the reach of mobile health applications into the Australian population and aid in good uptake of health promotion resources. So what? Developing mobile applications in multidisciplinary partnerships is good practice and can lead to wide community uptake of the health promotion resource.