Healthy Eating for Young Adults: Communication in Early Stages of Behavior Change

To investigate how young adults in the precontemplation and contemplation stages respond to infographic-based healthy eating information.

Online survey with 507 participants (aged 18-25 years) living in the United Kingdom. Participants evaluated 8 infographics about healthy eating. One of the 8 was presented as either an image or a video. Outcomes included information seeking, message elaboration, affect, annoyance, relevance, and intention to use the information.

Participants responded positively to the infographics, although message elaboration was low. More than half of the participants sought additional information after seeing the infographics. Outcomes did not differ among the 8 infographics. The information resonated more with those who were health-oriented, employed, in the contemplative stage, or responsible for shopping/cooking. Compared with the image, the video format of the 1 infographic prompted less information seeking in dormitory residents and more annoyance in students.

Researchers and practitioners can flexibly select health messaging content for this target group, but may consider that the video format can sometimes hinder communication effectiveness. The findings underscore the importance of considering health beliefs alongside the stage of change in communication and reinforce the relevance of frameworks that bridge the Trans-Theoretical Model and the Health Belief Model.