Systematic Review of Easy-to-Learn Behavioral Interventions for Dietary Changes Among Young Adults

Improving the diet quality of young adults may support chronic disease prevention. The approaches used and efficacy of promoting small dietary behavior changes through easy-to-learn (ETL) interventions (requiring no more than 1 hour to teach the behavior) among young adults have not yet been systematically reviewed.

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 2 independent electronic searches across 6 databases were conducted to identify any articles describing ETL interventions among young adults (aged 18-35 years) and reporting dietary intake outcomes.

Among 9,538 articles identified, 9 studies met eligibility criteria. Five studies reported significant improvement in the selected dietary outcome. Of these, 3 studies used an implementation intentions approach, in which participants were given or asked to write out a simple dietary behavior directive and carry it on their person. Less than half of included studies were rated as positive for overall quality.

The available evidence suggests that ETL interventions targeting the dietary behaviors of young adults may be effective in improving dietary intake. Limitations of included studies were lack of follow-up after the intervention period and low generalizability.

Further dietary intervention studies targeting young adults should systematically evaluate the efficacy of ETL intervention approaches among diverse samples.