Consumer Engagement in the Design of Educational Nutrition Information for Older Adults and Their Caregivers: A Scoping Review

Consumer engagement is important to design high-quality educational nutrition information that holistically addresses consumers’ needs. This can occur through consultation and feedback mechanisms like surveys or focus groups, consumer expert panels or advisory boards to provide the consumers’ perspective, or through participatory research methods. The extent of consumer engagement also varies with differing levels of influence over the decision-making process. This systematic scoping review aimed to explore and synthesize the extent to which consumers are engaged in designing various types of educational nutrition interventions, the methods and levels of consumer engagement, and its impact on the resulting educational nutrition information presented. We comprehensively searched Medline via OVID, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Each article was independently screened by 2 authors by title and abstract. Two reviewers independently assessed the full text of the remaining articles for eligibility. Two authors independently extracted data from the 36 final articles (15 original and 21 substudies), including consumer engagement assessment per the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum. Fourteen of the 15 studies obtained input from consumers to inform the design of the educational nutrition information in terms of content, design, wording, and platform. However, consumer engagement across the studies mostly sat within the “Consult” and “Involve” level of the IAP2 spectrum, with only 1 study achieving a “Collaborate” engagement level. This suggests a low level of genuine consumer partnership in the studies to date. Consumer engagement across the studies differed on how and the extent to which consumers were engaged in designing educational nutrition information. Greater emphasis on shared decision-making and collaborating with consumers right from the start is key to ensuring that educational nutrition information designed for them best addresses their needs and preferences, which potentially translates to better health outcomes.