Motivational Interviewing and Fruit/Vegetable Consumption in Older Adults

Evidence supports the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) and risk reduction for several illness conditions, even for older adults. Thus, we examined the effects of motivational interviewing (MI) on FVC in adults with a mean age ≥60. We chose MI because of its growing popularity as an effective behavior change strategy and because the person-centered MI principles are a good fit for older adults. We searched 10 electronic databases, several journals, and unpublished and fugitive literature. We retrieved seven primary studies, providing nine comparisons, with 1,978 participants. The overall MI effect size (ES) was .221 ( p = .002). When the percentage of women was greater, ES was lower; when interventionists had more training, ES was higher; and when sessions were longer, ES was stronger. Future researchers might test longer sessions with trained interventionists and examine gender differences. Practitioners should be well trained and offer sessions that are 30 to 40 min in length.