Field trial of an intervention targeting social images of healthy eating and vegetable consumption among military conscripts

Young people’s eating behavior is influenced by their prototypes of typical healthy and unhealthy peer eaters. This study evaluates the effects of a poster and cartoon strip campaign to promote positive images of vegetable eating peers and vegetable consumption among conscripted men in a quasi-experimental study design. Samples of young Finnish men reported vegetable consumption frequency at the start of compulsory military service (control arm n = 848, intervention arm n = 959) and at six months of service (control n = 424, intervention n = 484). Half of the participants reported their perceptions of Vegetable chooser or Vegetable abstainer prototypes, respectively, at baseline and follow-up (control n = 239, intervention n = 234). Three out of six prototypes showed negative developments at follow-up. However, prototypes and vegetable consumption showed less negative development in the intervention group compared to the control group.