Critical review of behaviour change techniques applied in intervention studies to improve cooking skills and food skills among adults

ABSTRACT

Background: Cooking and food skills interventions have grown in popularity; however, there is a lack of transparency as to how these interventions were designed, highlighting a need to identify and understand the mechanisms of behavior change so that effective components may be introduced in future work. This study critiques cooking and food skills interventions in relation to their design, behavior change techniques (BCTs), theoretical underpinnings, and outcomes.

Methods: A 40-item CALO-RE taxonomy was used to examine the components of 59 cooking and food skills interventions identified by two systematic reviews. Studies were coded by three independent coders.

Results: The three most frequently occurring BCTs identified were #1 Provide information on consequences of behavior in general; #21 Provide instruction on how to perform the behavior; and #26 Prompt Practice. Fifty-six interventions reported positive short-term outcomes. Only 14 interventions reported long-term outcomes containing BCTs relating to information provision.

Conclusion: This study reviewed cooking and food skills interventions highlighting the most commonly used BCTs, and those associated with long-term positive outcomes for cooking skills and diet. This study indicates the potential for using the BCT CALO-RE taxonomy to inform the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of future interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Cooking skills
• interventions
• diet
• behavior change techniques

Acknowledgments

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. LM, LH, MS, MR, MD, MC, and MS were involved in the conception of the review; MR, DS, and FL conducted the majority of literature searches; DS, FL, and LH conducted the analysis of the data; LH and DS drafted the manuscript and FL, MR, MC, AMC, EM, MR, MS, and MD edited. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution made by Susan Michie (University College London) for helping with the interpretation and application of the CALO-RE taxonomy.

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by safefood, The Food Safety Promotion Board, under Grant No. 11/2013.