Caregiver preferences for early childhood health behaviour initiative elements

Caregiver input is essential to enhance acceptability of child health promotion initiatives. However, little is known about their preferences. We aimed to determine the elements of early childhood initiatives that caregivers prefer and consider most important.<b> </b>We conducted an online survey including a discrete choice experiment. Participants (Australian caregivers of a child 0-5yo) completed 12 choice tasks, selecting between two hypothetical initiatives or opt-out. Initiatives varied across six attributes (mode, group vs individual, setting, duration, initiative type, tailoring), each with three levels. Other initiative elements (e.g. topics) were assessed using multiple choice questions. Descriptive statistics summarised survey responses, and a mixed multinomial logit model analysed choice data.The final sample included 401 plausible completed responses (block 1 n=203, block 2 n=198), resulting in 4,812 choice tasks.