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Hungry for an intervention? Adolescents' ratings of acceptability of eating-related intervention strategies.
- Source :
- BMC Public Health; 1/5/2016, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p1-8, 8p, 3 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>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.<bold>Methods: </bold>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).<bold>Results: </bold>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.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- EATING disorders
HEALTH promotion
PUBLIC health
SOCIAL acceptance
MEDICAL literature
MEDICAL research
PREVENTION of obesity
AGE distribution
DIET
FOOD habits
HEALTH attitudes
HEALTH behavior
HUNGER
IMMIGRANTS
INGESTION
MEDICAL ethics
OBESITY
PRIVACY
RESEARCH funding
SEX distribution
TEENAGERS' conduct of life
ETHNOLOGY research
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14712458
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- BMC Public Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 112125477
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2665-6