Psychosocial determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among students in a New Zealand university. Results of focus group interviews.

The '5+ a day' fruit and vegetable servings recommendation was introduced in New Zealand in 1994, but consumption has remained low in young adults ever since. This study aimed to identify psychosocial determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among New Zealand university students approximately a decade after the guidelines' introduction. Twenty-nine students, aged 18-24 years, took part in focus group interviews. Important determinants included taste and health awareness/knowledge. Flatmates and partners had the greatest social influence. Cost and availability were major barriers to consumption. To improve consumption participants suggested: cooking sessions providing quick/easy recipes; more-varied nutritional information; 'made-to-measure' interventions; increasing awareness of cheap sources of fruit/vegetables; and increasing campus availability of fruit. Determinants including a negative attitude, a lack of self-efficacy and an unawareness of dietary guidelines/health consequences should be considered when developing interventions for this group, whilst a variety of different delivery channels should be used. Participants in the study were not representative of all university students, who generally have a different lifestyle to other young adults and specific determinants for fruit/vegetable consumption. Consequently, additional research is required among other young adults and university students with lower fruit and vegetable intake, so that promotional strategies can be specifically targeted.

Obesity and health--new perspectives from bioscience research suggest directions for clinical practice.

This viewpoint is written from the dual perspectives of a metabolic biochemist and a nurse academic who met at the Oxford University Round Table Forum on Obesity in 2008. Forty invited participants from around the world spent a week presenting and debating research and practice in the area of obesity. A unique feature of this forum was that it was cross-disciplinary with participants ranging from those working in public health with a background in medicine, paediatrics, nutrition, nursing, education, policy analysis, behaviour and social sciences, and exercise physiology to those working in the food industry and health insurance. The link between our current affluent lifestyle and increasing obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and the associated morbidity and mortality is well established. Interventions have involved individual patient clinician encounters aimed at weight loss and broader public health interventions with the goal of prevention and management of obesity. However, what is often overlooked is the need to also understand the psychosocial implications and issues for those living with a large body in a society where the prevailing culture, including that of health professionals, espouses a lean body as the ideal and excess weight as a testimony to greed, sloth and lack of will power. In this paper we share observations and learning from Round Table participation together with some of our own research interests.