Margrethe Røed completed her four-year general teacher education at Agder University College in 1996 (now the University of Agder) and then worked in primary school until 2007. She took guidance pedagogy (30 credits) at Telemark University College (now the University of Southeast Norway) in 1998. In 2007, she began teaching at the Department of Public Health, Sports and Nutrition at the University of Agder. She completed a Master's degree in Education at the University of Agder in 2011. In 2016, she began as a research fellow at the University of Agder, while also teaching in parts of the position at the department (now the Department of Nutrition and Public Health). She has completed her doctoral education at the Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences PhD program. The doctorate was funded by the University of Agder.
Evaluation Committee:
- Professor Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir, School of Health Science, University of Iceland
- Førsteamanuensis Lisa Maria Gardweidner-Holme, Department of Nursing and Health Promotion, OsloMet
- Head of evaluation committee: Associate professor Bård Erlend Solstad, UiA
Supervisors:
- Main supervisor: Professor Nina Cecilie Øverby, UiA
- Co-supervisor: Professor Frøydis Nordgård Vik, UiA; professor Elisabet Rudjord Hillesund, UiA & Wendy Van Lippevelde, Ghent University
Summary
In the project Food4toddlers, Margrethe Røed has researched the diet of young children (1-2 year olds), and asked the questions: can the diet be improved with the help of a website that provides advice on how parents can make good choices, and what is the connection between parents' motives for food choices and what the child eats? An initiative was developed to raise awareness among parents of young children about the importance of the environment for children's eating development and the establishment of good habits. A randomized controlled study was conducted, where parents in the intervention group were given access to a website with information, films and recipes and were given regular reminders. The control group was not given access to the website.
A total of four articles are included in the thesis. Article I describes the development, implementation and basis of the Mat til minsten project as well as characteristics of the included participants. We recruited 298 participants from all over the country and most of them were highly educated mothers. In Article II, we examined the relationships between parents' motives for food choices, feeding practices and children's fruit or vegetable intake. Parents who were concerned about health reported that their children ate more vegetables. This can be partly explained by the fact that they also used positive meal practices. Motives other than health had no impact on intake. In Article III, we examined the effect of the intervention. Children in families who had access to the website ate more vegetables at 18 months of age than those who did not. This was one of the main goals of the intervention. No other differences between the groups were found. Article IV deals with parents' satisfaction and use of the website. Parents found the website easy to understand and that the information was adapted to the child's age. Most participants visited the website (86.5%) and highly educated people used the website the most. Our findings show that digital interventions can help parents promote a healthy diet for their children.