Projects
043 - Healthybytes: Empowering oral health professional with digital tools to drive dietary behaviour change
- Chief Investigator A: Dr Anu Ivaturi
- Associate Investigators/ Research Collaborators: Dr Emma Foster and Prof Paula Moynihan
Introduction
Adolescence is a critical period marked by increased independence in food choices, yet limited food literacy can lead to unhealthy dietary behaviours and increased risk of non-communicable diseases, including dental caries. In Australia, a significant proportion of adolescents consume diets high in sugar, salt, and saturated fats, contributing to the high prevalence of dental decay and other health issues. Despite the strong link between diet and oral health, preventive dietary advice in dental settings remains inconsistent and limited. Given that most adolescents regularly attend dental services, these settings offer a valuable opportunity for targeted health promotion. This project seeks to address this gap by leveraging digital technology to support personalised dietary assessment and communication, with the aim of improving food literacy, promoting healthier behaviours, and ultimately enhancing oral and overall health outcomes
Aims
The primary aim of this project is to co-design a digital preventive intervention (HealthyBytes) to improve food literacy in adolescents and drive dietary behaviour change through dental practices.
Objectives:
- Engage with stakeholders-- dentists, adolescents, and parents through interviews and workshops to understand barriers and facilitators for the adoption and implementation of digital preventive interventions for dietary behaviour change in dental practices
- Conduct interactive workshops to co-design HealthyBytes by (i) engaging in activities to sense-check the synthesised findings on barriers and facilitators and (ii) critiquing the existing prototype
- Adapt the prototype based on the outcomes from the workshops and conduct a pilot implementation using the RE-AIM framework
- Based on the outcomes from the pilot, iteratively extend the implementation of HealthyBytes to four additional clinics
- Synthesise implementation and evaluation outcomes to inform the creation of a toolkit for scaleup of HealthyBytes
Methodology
This study adopts a co-design, mixed-methods implementation approach to develop and evaluate a digital dietary intervention (HealthyBytes) within dental settings. The methodology is structured across four sequential work packages aligned with the double-diamond design model. Initially, semi-structured interviews and stakeholder workshops with dentists, adolescents, parents, and administrative staff will be conducted to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing digital dietary interventions, with data analysed thematically using the Theoretical Domains Framework. These findings will inform co-design workshops to refine the HealthyBytes prototype, ensuring usability, relevance, and integration into clinical workflows. The refined intervention will then be piloted in one dental clinic over 12 weeks, embedded within routine care, and evaluated using a mixed-methods approach guided by the RE-AIM framework to assess reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Following this, adaptive implementation will be extended to four additional clinics to assess scalability across diverse settings. Data collection will include interviews, surveys, clinician logs, and usage analytics, alongside dietary assessment using the Intake24 24-hour recall tool. Quantitative data will be analysed descriptively, while qualitative data will undergo reflexive thematic analysis, with findings integrated to inform iterative refinement and the development of an implementation toolkit for broader scale-up.
What are the expected outcomes?
Improved food literacy and healthier dietary behaviours among adolescents, including reduced intake of foods high in sugar, salt and fat and increased consumption of healthier options.
Enhanced oral and overall health outcomes particularly a reduction in dental caries risk, through integration of personalised, technology-supported dietary advice within routine dental care
