Short Videos Addressing Barriers to Cooking with Vegetables in Young Adults: Pilot Testing

ABSTRACT

Objective: Digital platforms offer innovative opportunities for nutrition education to motivate young adults to improve eating behaviors and practices. This study aimed to pilot test short educational cooking videos for dissemination through a smartphone designed to address barriers to home cooking and vegetable consumption among young adults.

Method: Instructional videos (1–3 min) were produced and acceptability and perceived effectiveness for reducing barriers was investigated. Short free-response questions explored enablers of home cooking and feedback on the videos was collected through open discussion. Qualitative findings were coded using NVivo 11.

Results: Three focus groups with 16 young adults (mean age = 21.1 years) were conducted. Videos were well received and 9 of 13 participants who had low motivation to cook at baseline reported an increase in motivation post–video viewing. Perception of time as a barrier was reduced for 10 of 16 participants and thematic analysis revealed that accessibility to ingredients, ability to conceptualize recipes, and cost-saving tips were key enablers to cooking with vegetables.

Conclusions: Short cooking videos may be a useful tool in interventions to address barriers to vegetable preparation and consumption among young adults. Future research should identify whether improvements in attitudes and motivation translate to change in intake.

KEYWORDS:

• Young adults
• vegetables
• cooking
• smartphones
• nutrition education

Acknowledgments

Materials and methods for the cooking videos and focus groups were approved by the Institutional Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 2016/304). The lead researcher (a PhD candidate) was supported by the Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship.

Author contributions

MAF, MN, ZGYC, and JLF conceived the study design. ZGYC and JLF developed the cooking videos; MN, ZGYC, and JLF collected data and conducted data analysis. ZGYC and MN drafted the initial manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The primary author was supported by The Commonwealth Government Research Training Support Scheme Scholarship.