Email-based health promotion for pregnant women in the Netherlands

In 2006, the Dutch government initiated Hello World, an email-based program promoting healthy lifestyles among pregnant women through quizzes with pregnancy-related questions. In 2008, an updated version was released.
In a paper just published in BMC Research Notes, with Hanneke van Dongen as first author we examined the reach of Hello World and the representativeness of its users for all pregnant women in the Netherlands, explored the relationship between program engagement and lifestyle characteristics, and investigated the relationship between the program content the participants accessed (content on smoking, physical activity, and nutrition) and their lifestyles.
Data from 4,363 pregnant women were obtained and analyzed. 
Hello World reached only about 4% of its target population. Relatively few lower educated and immigrant women registered for the program. Active participation in the program was positively related with more healthy lifestyles among the women but the participants did not necessarily choose the content that was most relevant for them to further improve their health behavior. ' Hello World' was noy continued as a separate health promotion site, but the information and feedback was integrated in the information of the Youth & Family centers (centrum jeugd en gezin informatiebank)lan, explored the relationship between program engagement and lifestyle characteristics, and investigated the relationship between the program content the participants accessed (content on smoking, physical activity, and nutrition) and their lifestyles.
Data from 4,363 pregnant women were obtained and analyzed. 
Hello World reached only about 4% of its target population. Relatively few lower educated and immigrant women registered for the program. Active participation in the program was positively related with more healthy lifestyles among the women but the participants did not necessarily choose the content that was most relevant for them to further improve their health behavior. ' Hello World' was noy continued as a separate health promotion site, but the information and feedback was integrated in the information of the Youth & Family centers (centrum jeugd en gezin informatiebank)