JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

News websites are an important source of medical news. Many offer online users the opportunity to leave comments, and these may provide a rich source of insights into public perspectives on health issues. With an established role in public health, fruit and vegetable consumption is central to government dietary guidelines; intake however, continues to fall short of government recommendations.

Objective:

Using comments from news websites, this study aimed to explore public perspectives on fruit and vegetable intake, and on related government dietary guidelines.

Methods:

Data comprised 2696 online comments generated in response to substantial media coverage for a meta-analysis, examining fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and total cancer. Using an inductive thematic approach, data were systematically analysed and coded in an iterative process.

Results:

Four overarching themes emerged: personal factors; rejection; lack of knowledge; food landscape, each with component sub-themes. A 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 is needed to examine this, as well as rejection and the possibility of public fatigue, related to dietary health information and news. Likewise, targeted interventions, with a specific emphasis on health literacy, should be explored.