The negative impact of a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet on health is evident across the lifespan, but particularly during the university period. Usually, the diet of university students is rich in sweetened drinks and processed foods and low in fruits, vegetables and legumes. Although there is an association between maintaining a healthy diet and the frequency of cooking at home, the time currently spent on cooking or learning how to cook is decreasing globally. The main aim of this study was to explore university students’ perceptions about healthy cooking and barriers to eating healthily. A group of 26 students participated in four focus groups. Content analysis was conducted using Atlas.ti v.8. Students perceived cooking healthily as a more complicated and time-consuming process than cooking in general. Individual and environmental factors were the most reported barriers. Costs and time, among others, were the main barriers pointed out by students with regard to healthy eating. This study highlights the need to develop interventions that modify these false perceptions about cooking healthily, and to train students so that they are able to cook healthy meals in a quick, easy, and cost-effective way. Further, specific actions are required in the university setting to minimize access to unhealthy options and to promote those linked to healthy eating.

To analyse to what extent pregnant women remembered having received health advice regarding alcohol consumption during pregnancy, what the message they perceived was and whether there is social inequality in this regard. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed with a sample of 426 pregnant women (in their 20th week of pregnancy) receiving care in the outpatient clinics of a university hospital in a southern Spanish city (Seville). The data were collected through face-to-face structured interviews carried out by trained health professionals. 43% of the interviewed women stated that they had not received any health advice in this regard. Only 43.5% of the sample remembered having received the correct message (not to consume any alcohol at all during pregnancy) from their midwife, 25% from their obstetrician and 20.3% from their general practitioner. The women with a low educational level were those who least declared having received health advice on the issue. The recommended health advice to avoid alcohol consumption during pregnancy does not effectively reach a large proportion of pregnant women. Developing institutional programmes which help healthcare professionals to carry out effective preventive activities of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is needed.

Currently, Africa is the region of the world where the highest number of new cases of HIV infection are registered. In 2022, Equatorial Guinea was the Central African country with the highest HIV prevalence (6.9%) and incidence (3.80 per 1,000 amongst the population of all ages). The main objective of this study was to determine the perceptions of HIV and the meanings given to it among the population of Equatorial Guinea in order to assess to what extent they represent a barrier to the prevention strategies implemented hitherto. A total of 30 semi-structured interviews and nine focal groups were carried out. The interviewees’ testimonies revealed a combination of differing perceptions and meanings around HIV. In some cases, HIV was perceived as “a non-existent illness”, and in others as “a disease of others”, or as “a disease of bad luck”. Other majority perceptions of HIV classed it as “a deadly disease” or “a sexual illness”. All these perceptions of HIV and the social representations constructed around it can represent a barrier to adopting preventive practices. Hence, in order to improve efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness, it is recommended that HIV prevention policies take into account the heterogeneity of meanings linked to the different social groups that have contracted the virus.