Stakeholders’ perspectives on supporting the transition to sustainable and healthy dietary behaviours within the university setting: qualitative insights from the UCD PLAN’EAT study

Universities present a promising environment to promote positive sustainable and healthy dietary behaviour (SHDB) change. To develop appropriately tailored university-based interventions, it is crucial to understand context-specific factors influencing dietary behaviours and solutions viewed as feasible and acceptable by stakeholders, including prospective implementers, to maximise adoption. This study explored stakeholders’ perspectives of key factors influencing university students’ dietary behaviours and recommended solutions to support SHDBs within the university setting. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders connected to University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. Interviews were thematically analysed. Findings were reported across the socio-ecological model (SEM) and mapped to elements of the behaviour change wheel (BCW) (i.e., the capability, opportunity, motivation behaviour (COM-B) model and potential BCW intervention functions), and the theoretical domains framework, where applicable. Factors influencing students’ dietary behaviours were reported across three levels of the SEM, namely, the individual (e.g., financial considerations), interpersonal (e.g., social context), and environmental (e.g., food/facility accessibility) levels, with the majority of factors mapped to the opportunity component of the COM-B model. Solutions to support the transition to SHDBs within the university setting were reported across all levels of the SEM, namely, the individual (e.g., incentivisation), interpersonal (e.g., student engagement), environmental (e.g., food environment manipulations), and policy (e.g., whole-campus approach) levels, with solutions mapped across all COM-B components. Findings evidence universities’ unique potential to target dietary behaviours across multiple SEM levels and COM-B components, offering valuable insights to guide the development of future SHDB interventions within the UCD PLAN’EAT Living Lab and further afield. Abbreviations: COM-B model, Capability, Opportunity, Motivation Behaviour Model; TDF, Theoretical Domains Framework; BCW, Behaviour Change Wheel.