Healthy Eating For Young Adults: Communication in Early Stages of Behaviour Change (2024)

Communication about healthy eating is often targeted at those who are interested in eating healthily. But what about those who are less interested? To make sure no one is left behind, the HEYA (Healthy Eating for Young Adults) research project was designed to investigate the food-related communication needs, preferences, and priorities of consumers who do not prioritize healthy eating, with a particular focus on young adults (18-25) in the UK. We focussed on these segments because they have worse dietary practices and food-related skills (e.g., cooking, meal planning/prepping, resourcefulness) (1,2), are harder to reach, and more difficult to persuade (3,4).

We conducted focus groups to understand the priorities and information preferences of this target group when it comes to food and eating. Based on the focus group findings, we selected key topics of interest and developed tailored infographics to address each topic. Then, we designed an online survey to investigate how young adults in the precontemplation (i.e., having no intention to eat healthily) and contemplation (i.e., contemplating about but not yet committing to healthy eating) stages of behaviour change respond to infographic-based healthy eating information.

The survey was filled in by 507 participants (aged 18–25 years) living in the UK. Participants evaluated 8 infographics about healthy eating in a random order:

1. Comfort eating: Tips to differentiate between physical and emotional hunger coupled with easy and quick ideas for healthier comfort eating
2. Seasonal eating: Examples of seasonal vegetables and simple and cheap ways to use winter vegetables
3. Performance: Tips to improve performance (i.e., cognitive functioning, sleep, and energy levels) and examples of high-performance meals
4. Gut health: Roles of the gut microbiome in the body and tips to diversify it
5. Limited resources: Shopping and cooking tips to save money and time and examples of convenient healthy food options
6. Making food go further: Tips for easier access to healthy food and less food waste (i.e., stocking up on healthy foods with long shelf life, using overripe fruits and vegetables, cooking zero-waste recipes)
7. Social eating: Ideas for healthier indulgent eating in social gatherings
8. Mental health: Nutrients, foods, and behaviours to boost mood

One of the 8 infographics (Gut health) was presented as either an image or a video.

Participants indicated whether they would like to receive more information on the topic of the infographic (information seeking), wrote down their thoughts about the infographic (message elaboration), and reported how they felt while reading the information (affect), how relevant they found the information (relevance), and whether they would try out the tips/suggestions in the future (intention to use). We also measured health beliefs (susceptibility to and severity of unhealthy eating, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and environmental cues to eating healthily) and categorised participants according to their beliefs as either health-oriented or health-unconcerned.

Key findings of the study

• Participants responded positively to the infographics (all infographics performed similarly), although there was room for more elaboration
  • Most participants (57% to 61.9% depending on the infographic) sought further info on topics of the infographics
  • The infographics elicited positive affect in participants
  • Infographics were perceived as moderately to quite relevant
  • Participants had weak but positive intentions to use the information in the future
  • Elaboration with the information was generally low (on average, 1 thought per infographic)
• The information resonated more with those who were health-oriented (large effect sizes), employed, in the contemplative stage, or responsible for shopping/cooking
• Compared with the image, the video format prompted less information seeking in dormitory residents and more annoyance in students

Conclusions

Our findings align with previous research by demonstrating that targeted messages addressing skills, short-term benefits, or emotional/social barriers can positively engage young adults not yet committed to healthy eating. Certain subsegments tend to be more receptive to healthy eating information, regardless of the specific message communicated. These include young adults who are health-oriented, in the contemplative stage of healthy eating behaviour change, employed, or responsible for shopping or cooking. In particular, health-oriented participants had consistently more favourable responses to the infographics compared to health-unconcerned ones. This shows that health beliefs strongly shape the effectiveness of communication and highlights the need to consider them alongside the stage of behaviour change. Finally, our findings indicate that silent videos risk lower engagement and higher annoyance in certain subgroups, making infographics a more reliable option for health messaging in the early stages of behaviour change.

Access the full paper here: https://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(25)00530-5/abstract

References

1. Dix CF, Brennan L, Reid M, et al. Nutrition meets social marketing: targeting Health Promotion campaigns to young adults using the living and eating for health segments. Nutrients. 2021; 13:3151.
2. Lima SC, Melo GRDAE, Schincaglia RM, Souza Lopes AC, Toral N. Stages of change and self-efficacy are related to consumption of food markers among Brazilian adolescents and young adults. Front Public Health. 2023;10:1006898.
3. Poobalan AS, Aucott LS, Clarke A, Smith WCS. Diet behaviour among young people in transition to adulthood (18−25 year olds): a mixed method study. Health Psychol Behav Med. 2014;2:909–928.
4. Noar SM. Transtheoretical model and stages of change in health and risk messaging. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. 2017. https://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-324. Accessed December 8, 2025.