DOI: 10.5064/f6tskffn
title: Data for “It is really just brilliant to get credits for something that is so important to you!” Skills for Life: University students’ perceptions of a planned dietary life skills course

description: &lt;h3&gt;Project Summary&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this qualitative study, 13 semi-structured focus group discussions (FGDs) with a total of 57 university students (35 women and 22 men) were conducted to explore their views on a proposed dietary life skills course and potential barriers and facilitators to engagement, as a means of co-creation. The students were informed that information from the FGDs could be used to develop an elective, credit-providing course, available for all students at their university, focusing on nutrition, health and food preparation skills, aiming to enhance students’ knowledge, attitudes and skills regarding food and health. The Skills for Life course is planned to be piloted in 2023.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Data overview&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The dataset includes transcripts of 13 semi-structured focus group discussions from a Norwegian university with participating undergraduate students from seven different disciplines. All documents are de-identified. A focus group guide and the informed consent form (in Norwegian only) are also shared as documentation files.&lt;/p&gt; 

&lt;h3&gt;Data collection overview&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Focus groups consisted of 2-6 students and 10 out of 13 groups included both men and women. All FGD were conducted in Norwegian; they took place in a group study room on campus and lasted between 50 and 90 minutes. The FGDs were led by three postgraduate students in Public Health (CB, JN and LP - listed a Contributors in the metadata fields) who used this data for their MSc dissertations, each focusing on one of three topics: students’ reflections on preconception diet in relation to future health, determinants of food choices and diet quality, or sustainability issues related to diet. The postgraduate students’ supervisors (ERH and TB - details in Contributor metadata field) advised on how to conduct FGDs, and CB attended a qualitative training course on behalf of the interview team. In preparation for the FGDs each researcher facilitated a practice FGD prior to formal data collection to develop their skills and ensure the suitability of the interview guide and make any necessary adjustments. Each FGD was facilitated by one researcher (postgraduate student) and observed by the other two. Each researcher thus facilitated four or five FGDs and acted as an observer in the others which involved listening and taking notes. The first part of the FGDs focused on the research topic of the facilitating researcher: preconception diet in relation to future health, food determinants, or sustainable diet. The last part of each FGD focused on the perceived relevance and possible content of a planned life skills course targeting diet. The data shared here were retrieved from this last section of the FDGs, comprising 10-15 minutes of each FGD.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
A semi-structured interview guide was used to facilitate the 13 FGDs in a consistent way and to ensure coverage of the relevant questions. In the last part of the FGD, the facilitator introduced the idea of an elective diet and nutrition course (named Skills for Life), as described above. The FGD comprised open-ended questions such as: what do you think of such a course, in which way would you prefer the course to be organised, what themes do you wish to know more about and what would it take for you to attend the course. Follow-up questions were asked when appropriate. The FGD Guide shared here as documentation pertains to this portion of the FGDs specifically.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The FGDs were audio recorded using two institutionally-approved dictaphones without internet connection, in line with General Data Protection Regulation. Both dictaphones were used in all FGDs in case one went out of battery. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and cleaned by CB, JN and LP. Transcription and cleaning were performed by different researchers to ensure accuracy before the recordings were deleted. To secure confidentiality, participants were given ID numbers (e.g. 1A for interview 1, student A) in the transcripts. The ID numbers were also used to accompany verbatim quotes in the article.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;Organization of shared data&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In file names, "FG" stands for focus group and the number following represents the instance of the 13 total focus groups in this project. The English translations use the same file naming convention as the original Norwegian ones, with the additional suffix "_TRANSLATION."&lt;/p&gt;