Initiating and continuing behaviour change within a lifestyle intervention to optimise health during pregnancy in high-risk women

Project evaluation is crucial in large community projects to assess the implementation method and generalisability and answer questions about the feasibility, interest, participation, delivery and cost of the project to inform future implementability and scale-up. This project will evaluate the impact a large, international lifestyle (dietary advice and behaviour change) intervention delivered during pregnancy in women at risk of gestational diabetes has on enduring health behaviours, attitudes and knowledge. This project will explore factors influencing the processes of making and continuing behaviour change mapped against established behavioural frameworks and underpinned by the social cognitive model. Research aims: 1. To qualitatively evaluate the barriers and enablers of behaviour change initiation and continuation; 2. To understand the personal and program related factors that may affect participants’ abilities to modify their behaviour; 3. To understand participant expectation of the program, understanding of the aim of the program and its influence on engagement, outcomes and behaviour change. You should ideally have a background in health broadly with an interest in women’s health, particularly pregnancy care, health service delivery and implementation research. Your research will be part of a large collaborative project between Monash University and Monash Health. You will work closely with team members from multiple departments of these organisations and work within the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI). MCHRI is a division of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and is located within the Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP) – an innovative environment directly integrated with Monash Health – Victoria’s largest healthcare service, providing access to clinical research opportunities.