Enabling better nutrition and physical activity for adolescents from Middle Eastern backgrounds: focus groups

Nematullah Hayba, Claudia Khalil, Margaret Allman-Farinelli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
55 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The obesity epidemic in adolescents from Middle Eastern (ME) backgrounds necessitates co-designed and culturally-responsive interventions. This study’s objective was to gather the opinions, attitudes, capabilities, opportunities and motivations of ME adolescents residing in Australia on healthy eating and physical activity (PA) behaviours to inform a future prevention program. Five focus groups were conducted, with 32 ME participants, aged 13–18 years, recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. More participants were female (n = 19) and from lower socioeconomic areas (n = 25). A reflexive thematic analysis was performed using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model as the coding framework. Limited nutritional knowledge and cooking skills accompanied by a desire to make dietary changes were reported. Local and school facilities provided adolescents with PA opportunities, but participants declared safety concerns and limited opportunities for females and older grade students. Social support from family and friends were enablers for both healthy eating and PA. Cravings and desire for cultural foods influenced food choices. Individual and/or group approaches using social media and face-to-face format were recommended for future programs. To enable PA and dietary behaviour changes, interventions should be specifically tailored for ME adolescents to improve their nutrition literacy and skills, along with providing safe environments for sport in conjunction with social support.
Original languageEnglish
Article number3007
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalNutrients
Volume13
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Aug 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • adolescents
  • focus group
  • eating habits
  • nutrition
  • physical activity
  • enablers
  • barriers
  • Nutrition

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