Co-design of Lifestyle6, a digital tool targeting multiple health behaviour changes for cancer risk reduction and early detection support
Beatrice Murawski, Katelyn Emma Collins, Bianca Viljoen, Emma Charlotte Pearse, Jazmin Vicario, Anna Stiller, Hannah Grennan, Grant Brown, Lee Woods, Sonja March, Belinda Goodwin
Abstract
Up to 40% of all cancers diagnosed could be prevented through the uptake of healthy lifestyle behaviours. This paper describes the co-design of a novel community-centric digital programme for cancer prevention and early detection support.
Introduction
With approximately 20 million new cases and 10 million deaths per year, [1] cancer remains a significant global health challenge, placing a significant burden on healthcare systems worldwide. While cancers often arise from immutable factors such as DNA damage and genetic risk factors, a host of lifestyle factors such as tobacco and alcohol use.
Methods
This qualitative study was informed by the Learning Health Systems Framework [44] and the Behaviour Change Wheel [45]. The stage-wise community consultation process detailed here, followed established Design Thinking principles [36].
Results
A total of 110 out of 125 individuals who completed the expression of interest form were eligible to participate (Fig 1). Invitations to enrol as a panel member were sent to eligible individuals until a total of 30 consent forms were returned via reply email.
Discussion
This study described the co-design of Lifestyle 6, a novel community-centric digital programme for cancer risk reduction and early detection support using established design thinking principles [36]. Thematic analyses of panel data revealed three distinct themes including.
Conclusion
The insights reported above underpin the importance of striking the right balance between providing scientifically rigorous, yet palatable content and providing supportive community spaces in digital format.
Citation: Murawski B, Collins KE, Viljoen B, Pearse EC, Vicario J, Stiller A, et al. (2026) Co-design of Lifestyle6, a digital tool targeting multiple health behaviour changes for cancer risk reduction and early detection support. PLoS One 21(4): e0347311. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347311
Editor: Buna Bhandari, Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, NEPAL
Received: May 27, 2025; Accepted: March 31, 2026; Published: April 16, 2026
Copyright: © 2026 Murawski et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: The data that comprise the findings of this study are held securely on password protected servers and are only currently accessible by members of the research team granted permission from the University of Southern Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (ref. ETH2023-0359). The data are unable to be uploaded to a publicly available server due to the potentially identifying nature of the information; however, an aggregated summary of the data may be requested by other parties (e.g., researchers) upon reasonable request to the Research Operations Team at the Viertel Cancer Research Centre (research@cancerqld.org.au). The merit of each request will be individually evaluated before provision of de-identified interview materials.
Funding: This research was funded by Cancer Council Queensland. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
