“Why isn't fibre mentioned more often?” Conducting focus groups with an ageing population to promote dietary fibre-related awareness and starting the conversation

The UK population is ageing and promoting healthy eating is a key priority. Dietary fibre fits this remit; however, despite the well-proven benefits, intake is substantially below the UK-based (Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition; SACN) 30 g/d recommendations. Face-to-face activities are a means to drive engagement with the topic and identify viable age-suitable strategies to modulate future intake. Community living older adults (n = 34; 65+) were recruited to partake in focus groups to: (1) discuss healthy eating and challenges; (2) raise awareness of dietary fibre and understand knowledge levels; (3) co-design and develop a dietary fibre-based infographic; and (4) gain initial insights into the food environment. Older adults associated healthy eating with cooking from scratch and challenges were related to age, increasing costs, access to unhealthy foods and interpreting terminology. Key dietary fibre knowledge gaps were poor identification of appropriate foods, lack of benefit awareness beyond digestive and confusion with recommendations. The practical task highlighted the "fibre gap" in action and volume of food required to meet 30 g/d as well as difficulty with visualising portion sizes. Positively, older adults liked the circular co-designed infographic and were keen for more visual resources, food substitution support and practical examples coupled with mandatory labelling, clearer information, more shop-level support and cost incentives in a dietary fibre context. Going forwards, such insights will be fundamental to designing future wide-reaching public health initiatives requiring a combination of approaches benefiting from government, academia, industry and civil society to help embed dietary fibre into everyday eating habits.