LAUSR

Despite the benefits of fruit and vegetables (F&V) consumption on health, university students face difficulties adapting and/or maintaining a healthy lifestyle when living away from home. Adverse health-related behaviours are prevalent in this population (1–3) which potentially impact on longer-term health beyond young adulthood . The present study aimed to 1) increase fruit and vegetable consumption in students living away from home, and 2) to determine whether F&V consumption was further enhanced when social networks (e.g. Facebook) providing nutritional education was also available. A total of 60 (36 female 24 male) full-time university students living away from home were recruited and randomly allocated to one of 3 study groups, namely: ‘Control’ received no intervention, ‘F&V ’ received two and three fruits and vegetables respectively for 4 weeks from an individualised preferred list, and the ‘F&V+ Education ’ received F&V (as for the F&V group) plus nutrition education delivered via Facebook and which focused on benefits of F&V consumption. Consumption of F&V was assessed pre-intervention using a validated questionnaire and post intervention using a 4 day semi-quantitative food diaries. Compliance relating to consumption of F&V provided was assessed using records of waste/uneaten F&V. Analysis of food diaries was undertaken using Nutritics software and SPSS version 24 used for statistical analysis. All data were log-transformed before statistical analysis using Paired sample t-test and ANOVA.