Theoretical and practical approaches for dietary behavior change in urban socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents: a systematic review

CONTEXT: There is limited evidence on strategies used to promote dietary behavior changes in socioeconomically disadvantaged urban adolescents and on their effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: A synthesis of nutrition interventions used in this group of adolescents is provided in this systematic review. DATA SOURCES: Five electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and ERIC) were searched until November 2020 to identify relevant studies. DATA EXTRACTION: Forty-six manuscripts (n = 38 intervention studies) met the inclusion criteria. Quality was assessed with the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool. A qualitative synthesis summarizing data on study characteristics was conducted. DATA ANALYSIS: Studies were classified by intervention type as those focusing on hedonic determinants of dietary intake (n = 1), environmental changes to promote a specific dietary intake (n = 3), cognitive determinants (n = 29), and multicomponent strategies (n = 13). The social cognitive theory was the most applied theoretical framework, either alone or combined with other frameworks. Most of the intervention studies targeted multiple dietary outcomes, and success was not always reported for each. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the heterogeneity of the studies and lack of combination of dietary outcomes into dietary scores or patterns to evaluate changes on the individuals’ whole diets, long-term, theory-driven interventions targeting a single dietary factor seem promising in obtaining sustainable dietary behavior changes. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020188219.