“I wanna live in a world where change is possible”: Co-designing guidance for inclusive eating, exercise, and body image psychopathology outreach resources for men.

Background
Men’s help-seeking for eating, exercise, and/or body image psychopathology (EEBIP) is limited by numerous barriers (Mycock et al., 2025). One help-seeking barrier men disclose is that EEBIP healthcare organisations (services and charities) appear unwelcoming to men. Men’s mental health research has explored methods of health communication that engage men (Galdas et al., 2023), yet these methods remain unexplored in EEBIP settings. The purpose of the current study was to co-design guidance with men that can inform the design of men-inclusive EEBIP-related outreach resources.
Methodology
The co-design of guidance was undertaken through a modified nominal group technique. Firstly, potential resource format and content ideas were collected from 41 men via an online survey. Secondly, survey responses were rank-ordered by 6 lived experience partners (LEPs; men with self-identified EEBIP experience), and the top-ranked ideas formed the foundation of guidance design focus group discussions with LEPs. A reflexive thematic analysis of these focus groups generated six themes (i.e., key considerations for future resources). These themes guided critical discussions with healthcare and academic organisation representatives (HAOR). Finally, the HAOR’s suggestions were shared with the LEPs, and LEPs provided feedback via an online survey.
Results
Initial survey responses, generated 16 unique format ideas and 30 unique content ideas. The LEP’s and HAOR’s collaboration resulted in three themes that should be considered during future outreach resource developments for men. Resources for men should: (a) contain person-centred content tailored to specific groups of men, (b) be purpose/progress-driven, and (c) encourage self-recognition rather than labelling behaviours as disordered/unhealthy.
Conclusions
To our knowledge, this is the first study to co-design guidance for EEBIP healthcare organisations wishing to create outreach resources with men in mind. The findings reflect men’s preferences for EEBIP-related health communication via outreach resources, which may inform healthcare organisations in reviewing and/or developing such resources.