Learning from Peers: A Qualitative Study to Inform the Development of a Community Tailored Peer Support Intervention to Support Healthy Infant Growth.
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2025-12
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Abstract
Background
Obesity is a chronic disease that has negative health consequences for children. Peer support models have been used to manage chronic diseases like diabetes; however, little is known about how a peer support intervention might promote healthy infant growth to prevent pediatric obesity. The aim of this project was to explore parental perspectives on how a peer support intervention might be developed to support healthy infant weight gain and nutrition.Methods
Data were collected from November 2022 to October 2023 at a single pediatric primary care clinic. Semi-structured interviews explored parents' perspectives of how a peer parent coach could promote healthy infant nutrition and growth. Interviews focused on (1) common infant feeding and nutrition questions, (2) the role and importance of peer support during the newborn period, and (3) strategies for addressing and facilitating connections to food-related resources and addressing food insecurity.Results
A total of 18 interviews were conducted. Average parental age was 32.1 years (range 20-46 years). Thirty-three percent of the participants identified as Black, 28% identified as White, 11% identified as Asian, and the remaining identified as Other or preferred not to report. Half of the sample reported a household income of <$20,000, 67% reported having public insurance, and 11% reported household food insecurity. Themes that emerged included: peer parent coaches can (1) provide emotional support to families with young infants, (2) education focused on infant nutrition, and (3) facilitate connections with nutrition resources. Participants also noted the importance of understanding a family's unique culture when counseling on infant growth and nutrition.Conclusions
Multiple themes were identified about how a peer support intervention could support healthy infant nutrition and growth. Future work should test the feasibility and acceptability of a peer support intervention to promote healthy infant weight gain.Type
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Orr, Colin J, Alexander Acosta, Luis Acosta, Aunchalee EL Palmquist, Carrigan Price, Jennifer Guterriez-Wu, Adriana R Gaona, Edwin B Fisher, et al. (2025). Learning from Peers: A Qualitative Study to Inform the Development of a Community Tailored Peer Support Intervention to Support Healthy Infant Growth. Nutrients, 17(24). p. 3941. 10.3390/nu17243941 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/34302.
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Aunchalee E Loscalzo Palmquist
Dr. Aunchalee Palmquist is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Duke Global Health Institute with a secondary appointment in Cultural Anthropology. She holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).
Dr. Palmquist is a global health equity scholar, feminist ethnographer, and internationally recognized breastfeeding and human lactation researcher. Her scholarship bridges biocultural medical anthropology and global health. Inspired by feminist anthropology, Indigenous methodologies, bioethics, and human rights frameworks, she uses research to uncover root causes of global health challenges and to imagine new directions for policy, practice, and advocacy. Dr. Palmquist has over 20 years of experience conducting ethnographic, mixed-methods, and community-based participatory research and collaborates on interdisciplinary research with scholars from around the world.
Prior to joining DGHI, Dr. Palmquist was an Assistant Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. She was the 2021 recipient of a Gillings Faculty Award for Excellence in Health Equity Research and a two-time recipient of a Teaching Innovation Award in the Gillings School, Department of Maternal and Child Health (2020, 2023). Dr. Palmquist is the recipient of the 2024 American Anthropological Association's Solon T. Kimball Award for Practicing and Applied Anthropology and the 2024-2025 DGHI Graduate Professor of the Year award.
Dr. Palmquist has served as a CGBI representative on the WHO/UNICEF Global Breastfeeding Collective (2017-2023), the Emergency Nutrition Network IFE Core Group (2017-2023), and the United States Breastfeeding Committee as Co-Steward of the COVID-19 Infant and Young Child Feeding Constellation (2020-2023). Dr. Palmquist has previously served as an International Lactation Consultants Association liaison to the United Nations (2017). Her scholarship has been featured in the New York Times, BBC News, NPR, CNN, Associated Press, National Journal, and other media outlets. It has informed national policies and global health guidance related to breastfeeding in emergencies, human milk banking, and human milk sharing.
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