Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among Tehranian adolescents: A qualitative research

For effectively promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents, it is necessary to identify the determinants of intake. This qualitative research was conducted to explore the determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among Tehranian adolescents in 2012.

The present qualitative study is aimed at identifying the determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among Tehranian adolescents in 2012. Male and female students in the middle schools of Tehran, in the age range of 11-14 years, were used as the study population, which was selected by the convenience method. Semi-structured interactional interviews were used for data collection. Data was analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method.

The availability and accessibility of fruits and vegetables in home, availability of unhealthy options in the environment, socioeconomic status, advertising about unhealthy options, subjective norms, reinforcement, and modeling were explored as environmental factors in this study. Also, individual factors were extracted as the second category that encompassed the subcategories including; preferences, knowledge, skill in preparing fruits and vegetables, outcome expectations, outcome expectancy, perceived susceptibility, and perceived seriousness.

It is recommended that interventions have family-based designs as well as environmental policy-based (especially schools) ones. Meanwhile, families should be educated to adapt their children's sapour with tastes of fruits and vegetables during their childhood.