Communicating dietary guidelines for Americans: room for improvement

This qualitative study examines consumers' attitudes about key messages, alternative messages, and various formats of the 1995 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Five focus groups were conducted using a discussion guide based on previous research and the research concerns of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. The presentation orders of the guidelines, guideline alternatives, and formats were varied to prevent bias. Forty consumers (age range, 25 to 43 years) participated: 3 groups of women and 2 groups of men. Participants were not familiar with the Dietary Guidelines but had heard some messages. Consumers were confused by several guideline messages. First, the messages to "Maintain or improve your weight" and "Balance the food you eat with physical activity" did not make sense to them. Second, respondents were confused by the term "balance" in several different contexts. The participants most preferred a shortened format, followed by a 2-tiered or grouped format, with the 1995 list of Dietary Guidelines falling last. Most of the Dietary Guidelines could be better communicated to the public using shorter, clearer messages, especially for the weight and physical activity, and fat guidelines. Decreasing the number of guidelines or using a tiered/grouped format could make the Dietary Guidelines more useful to consumers.