Participant Preferences to Inform the Development of Theory-Driven, Digitally Delivered Cooking Interventions Using the Behavior Change Wheel

Objective: The objective of this study is to gather participant preferences to inform the development of digitally delivered cooking interventions using the first 2 stages of the Behavior Change Wheel design process. Design: Cross-sectional, open-ended questions to solicit preferences for content delivery and program topics. Participants were grouped as low or high cooking agencies, and differences in preferences were evaluated. Setting: Survey administered via the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. Participants: A total of 465 US residents (aged ≥ 20 years) were included (47.1% low cooking agency and 52.9% high cooking agency). Main Outcome: Intervention components identified using the Behavior Change Wheel. Analysis: Qualitative conventional content analysis and quantitative between-group t test and chi-square tests of homogeneity. Results: Intervention components identified were education and training (roasting, knife skills), modeling (using content experts, showcasing accomplishments), restructuring the social environment (group interaction, problem-solving), enablement (recipes, kitchen items, shopping lists, food), and incentivization (incentives, competitions). Some participant suggestions differed by cooking skill level. Conclusions and Implications: This study provides evidence for components needed to design digitally delivered cooking interventions. Future considerations include exploring differences in content by cooking skill level, alignment of intervention activities with relevant psychosocial theories, and conducting population-specific needs assessments to understand whether target populations are able to access digital interventions.