Co-designing retail strategies with people with lived experience of obesity and food insecurity

The role of public and patient involvement (PPI) groups in the FIO Food project
Woman food shopping from selection of fried snacks

Overview

The Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity (FIO Food) project aims to co-design supermarket-based interventions that support people living with obesity and food insecurity to make healthier and more sustainable food choices. The project team are working collaboratively to co-develop retail strategies that address dietary inequalities through an in-depth understanding of the experiences of people living with obesity and food insecurity (Lonnie et al., 2023). 
Public and patient involvement (PPI) groups play a key role in FIO Food, ensuring that research addresses the most relevant issues, that study materials and interventions are acceptable to participants, and that research findings are presented in accessible formats. The overall aim is to give people with lived experience of obesity and food insecurity a voice, and to communicate their voices to policymakers, retail partners and the research team.

People involved 

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from nutritional and social sciences, applied health, obesity, and data science are collaborating with a range of organisations, including retail (Sainsbury’s plc), nutritionists, third-sector organisations and policy makers.
Three public and patient involvement (PPI) groups have been created to work closely with researchers, actively contributing to the development, delivery, and dissemination of all work within FIO Food work packages: 
  • FIO Food Ambassadors: recruited through the Food Foundation. This group includes people with lived experience of food insecurity.
  • Community advisors’ group: based locally in Aberdeen. This group includes representatives from the Aberdeen City Council, third sector and community organisations, as well as people with lived experience of food insecurity and obesity. 
  • PPI advocates: recruited through a national weight management provider. This group includes people with lived experience of obesity based in England.
The project steering group also includes a member with lived experience of obesity.
Man food shopping for honey
Woman food shopping for juice
 
 

Key project activities

Public and patient involvement (PPI) groups are involved throughout the research process and across all project work packages.
For example, in Work Package 1 (Understanding the lived experience of people living with obesity and food insecurity), an online survey, interviews and focus groups are being used to capture food shopping experiences of people living with obesity and food insecurity, identifying the main barriers and facilitators to purchasing healthier and more sustainable foods. This knowledge will be used to co-design retail-based interventions later in the FIO Food project. To support this research, the PPI groups worked with the research team to:
Co-produce interview and focus group topic guides, screening questionnaires, and recruitment processes.
Discuss and interpret key findings before publication, and wider dissemination.
Provide feedback on dissemination materials (e.g., infographics that visually depict the results gathered in WP1).
PPI members were also actively involved with dissemination (e.g., video interviews with PPI group members were shared at a parliamentary event to share lived experiences of people with obesity and food insecurity).

Co-production principles

Relationships 

The research team meets regularly with the different public and patient involvement (PPI) groups either online or in-person. Members of the PPI groups are remunerated for their contributions with an hourly rate paid in vouchers.  

Knowledge 

Capturing the lived experience of a range of different people living with obesity and food insecurity is the cornerstone of the FIO Food project, and the team strive to do this through the three PPI groups, using these insights to co-develop solutions and strategies to support sustainable and healthier food choices, and address dietary inequalities.

Inclusivity 

The research team, PPI groups and other project partners have engaged in discussions on how to best recruit PPI members and research participants from a diverse range of backgrounds, regional localities, and ethnicities.
PPI group members have the option to meet researchers individually or in a group, and provide their feedback on documents according to their preference (by email or to chat about any comments).
 

Find out more about this project

Related references

Lonnie, M., E. Hunter, R. A. Stone, M. Dineva, M. Aggreh, H. Greatwood, A. M. Johnstone, and F. I. O. Food team (2023). 'Food insecurity in people living with obesity: Improving sustainable and healthier food choices in the retail food environment-the FIO Food project', Nutrition Bulletin, 48: 390–99
TUKFS (2023). 'Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity (FIO Food)', Accessed 16 October 2023. https://ukfoodsystems.ukri.org/research-projects-training-reports/fio-food/