The Effect of an Educational Intervention Based on The Social-Cognitive Theory on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Adolescent Females

Background: The results of studies in Iran and worldwide show that most adolescents have improper nutritional habits, characterized by low consumption of fruits and vegetables, high consumption of carbonated drinks, and preprocessed foods. Adolescence is an important stage of life in the formation of eating habits; thus, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on fruit consumption. Methods: The present study is a randomized controlled trial conducted using a multi-stage sampling method on 100 female students in Nehbandan city in 2023. Data were collected before the intervention. Then, four training sessions of 60 minutes were held for the intervention group, and then, the data were collected twice, once immediately after and then three months after the intervention. The data were analyzed in SPSS, using chi-square, Friedman, and Mann-Whitney tests at a significance level of P-value<0.05. Results: The findings showed that some constructs of the social cognitive theory, including knowledge, attitude, behavioral outcome, observational learning, social support, and environmental factors, had a significant increase in the intervention group (P<0.05), while the changes in the self-efficacy score in the intervention and control groups were the same (P<0.05). After the intervention, the amount of daily and weekly consumption of fruit and vegetables in the intervention group increased. Conclusion: The design and implementation of an educational intervention based on the social-cognitive theory can be effective in fruit and vegetable consumption in students.