%0 Journal Article
%@ 1438-8871
%I JMIR Publications
%V 23
%N 8
%P e19917
%T Perspectives on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Government Dietary Guidelines: Content Analysis of Comments on News Websites
%A Hornsby,B
%A Ensaff,H
%+ Nutritional Sciences and Epidemiology, University of Leeds, School of Food Science and Nutrition, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom, 44 1 133 433 418, h.ensaff@leeds.ac.uk
%K medical news
%K online news
%K user comments
%K public health
%K population health
%K qualitative analysis
%K perspectives
%K dietary guidelines
%K diet
%K fruit and vegetable consumption
%K mobile phone
%D 2021
%7 19.8.2021
%9 Original Paper
%J J Med Internet Res
%G English
%X Background: News websites are an essential source of medical news for the public. Many websites offer users the opportunity to leave comments, which may provide rich insights into public perspectives on health issues. With an established role in public health, fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption is central to the government’s dietary guidelines. However, FV intake continues to fall short of government recommendations. Objective: Using comments from news websites, this study aims to explore public perspectives on FV intake and related government dietary guidelines. Methods: Data comprised 2696 web user comments generated in response to substantial media coverage for a meta-analysis examining FV consumption and the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and total cancer. Using an inductive thematic approach, the data were analyzed and coded in an iterative process. Results: Four overarching themes emerged: personal factors, rejection, lack of knowledge, and food landscape, each with component subthemes. The lack of clarity around government dietary health guidelines was apparent, and this, along with emergent personal factors, may hinder better consumption. Rejection was also evident, as was a quality versus quantity of life debate. Conclusions: There are gaps in the public’s understanding of government guidelines, which may act as a constraint to better compliance. Further work should examine this issue and rejection and the possibility of public fatigue related to dietary health information and news. Similarly, future work should also explore targeted interventions with a specific emphasis on health literacy. 
%M 34420913
%R 10.2196/19917
%U https://www.jmir.org/2021/8/e19917
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/19917
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34420913