Effects of a Percentile Schedule for Vegetables on Increasing the Variety of Vegetables Consumed

Abstract

Study objective: The present study examined whether a percentile schedule for vegetables would increase the variety of vegetables that university students consume in their daily life. Design: Multiple baseline design across participants. Setting: The participants were instructed to consume various kinds of vegetables. Participants: 7 university students who had concerns regarding their lack of consumption of vegetables participated in the program. Intervention: In the baseline phase, an e-mail questionnaire was sent to the students, instructing them to record the names of the vegetables that they had consumed that day. In the intervention phase, in addition to the first questionnaire, an e-mail message was sent to the students whenever a current vegetable item scored less than a criterion determined during the preceding week. Measure: The number of different vegetables consumed was the measure of response variability. Results: In the intervention phase, some students showed an increase in the variety of vegetables consumed as compared to the baseline phase. Conclusions: The percentile schedule for vegetables increased the consumption of a variety of vegetables by some students.