Published January 5, 2016 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Hungry for an intervention? Adolescents’ ratings of acceptability of eating-related intervention strategies

  • 1. University of Konstanz
  • 2. Utrecht University
  • 3. Wageningen University and Research Centre
  • 4. University of Aarhus
  • 5. University of Social Sciences and Humanities Warsaw
  • 6. University College London
  • 7. Technical University of Lisbon
  • 8. University of New South Wales

Description

Background

Effective interventions promoting healthier eating behavior among adolescents are urgently needed. One factor that has been shown to impact effectiveness is whether the target population accepts the intervention. While previous research has assessed adults’ acceptance of eating-related interventions, research on the opinion of adolescents is lacking. The current study addressed this gap in the literature.

Methods

Two thousand seven hundred sixty four adolescents (aged 10–17 years) from four European countries answered questions about individual characteristics (socio-demographics, anthropometrics, and average daily intake of healthy and unhealthy foods) and the acceptability of ten eating-related intervention strategies. These strategies varied in type (either promoting healthy eating or discouraging unhealthy eating), level of intrusiveness, setting (home, school, broader out-of-home environment), and change agent (parents, teacher, policy makers).

Results

Based on adolescents’ acceptability ratings, strategies could be clustered into two categories, those promoting healthy eating and those discouraging unhealthy eating, with acceptability rated significantly higher for the former. Acceptability of intervention strategies was rated moderate on average, but higher among girls, younger, overweight and immigrant adolescents, and those reporting healthier eating. Polish and Portuguese adolescents were overall more accepting of strategies than UK and Dutch adolescents.

Conclusions

Adolescents preferred intervention strategies that promote healthy eating over strategies that discourage unhealthy eating. Level of intrusiveness affected acceptability ratings for the latter type of strategies only. Various individual and behavioral characteristics were associated with acceptability. These findings provide practical guidance for the selection of acceptable intervention strategies to improve adolescents’ eating behavior.

Notes

EUR 1,800 APC fee funded by the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Funding

European Commission
TEMPEST – Temptations to Eat Moderated by Personal and Environmental Self-regulation Tools 223488