Many mothers struggle with eating healthily during pregnancy and after giving birth. However, it can have many health benefits for both mother and child in the short and long term. To help mothers get started, Janine Faessen (WUR) developed the PRISTA app. With seed funding from the Institute for Preventive Health, she assembled a transdisciplinary team and took the next step in developing the app. It will be rolled out in 2026.
‘The first 1,000 days of life, the period from the first months before pregnancy to approximately two years after giving birth, are particularly important,’ explains Janine Faessen. She works as a postdoctoral researcher in Early-Life Nutrition at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). ‘Healthy eating during this period – by both mother and child – reduces the risk of conditions such as gestational diabetes, low birth weight, postpartum depression, allergies in children, obesity and cardiometabolic disorders. Moreover, the birth of a child is a life-changing event, and therefore a perfect moment to learn (new) eating habits, for both parents and child.
App users
Although there are many pregnancy apps available, there are few high-quality apps that focus on teaching healthy eating habits. Moreover, there is no app that supports parents throughout the entire first 1,000 days. That is why Faessen developed the PRISTA app during her PhD. Based on questions about their own diet, mothers are given a nutritional quality score. They also receive advice: what are they doing well, and what could be improved?
‘Highly educated women in particular use the app, but they are often already motivated to eat healthily,’ explains Faessen. ‘Seed funding from the Institute for Preventive Health gave us – the now interdisciplinary research team – the opportunity to investigate how we can expand the app from mothers to the whole family.’
“We are focusing primarily on families in lower socioeconomic positions, because healthy eating is often more challenging for them, for example due to a lack of money. These families tend to have more varied family structures, such as divorced parents, single mothers or a grandmother who is involved in raising the children. That is why we need to look beyond just the mother. We also need to broaden our focus to include multiple cultures. With the seed money, we have made a plan for this, to be rolled out in 2026.
Co-creation
The team starts with exploratory interviews with parents, carers and healthcare professionals. In co-creation sessions, they then discuss what they need to improve the health of (their) children. To what extent can the PRISTA app help them with this and is an app the right format? And how do they envisage optimal nutritional support for young children? Consider the possibility of selecting your own language, a visual or textual interface and different dietary patterns to suit different cultures.
They also discuss embedding the app in healthcare practice, for example at health clinics or in CenteringCare groups. The app can provide guidance during discussions about nutrition in a group setting, but it can also offer tools outside of that setting.
Personalised app for all families
‘The findings from these sessions should ultimately lead to a programme that can be used by all families in the Netherlands,’ concludes Faessen. ‘The foundations have been laid, and we will continue to develop the programme in 2026. From that moment on, in addition to researchers from WUR, TU/e, UU and UMC Utrecht, practitioners will also join, such as Groente en Meer consultancy, which specialises in healthy eating habits for children, and the Balance Buddy foundation, which supports families in areas such as nutrition and lifestyle. With the help of i4PH, we have succeeded in putting together a team with all the necessary expertise.’
Find out more about this seed fund project.
Article by: Annemieke Groenenboom.