Barriers to fish consumption and it's influencing factors: A comprehensive overview of the relevant evidence in Iran and in the world

WHO suggests for consumption of fish twice a week. However, studies and reports show that fish consumption in some countries is less than its minimum amount. In the present study, barriers and influencing factors as well as related scientific evidence against fish consumption have been examined. This paper reviews the recent published papers in English and Farsi concerning fish consumption. Using keywords including “fish consumption”, “influencing factors on fish consumption”, “facilitators and barriers to fish consumption”, 20 relevant articles by search engines and databases such as Google Scholar, Pubmed, ScienceDirect, and SID were identified and extracted. Extracted data were then summarized in predesigned tables and consequently qualitative and simple quantitative data analyses were conducted. The review of these studies resulted in 12 obstacles to fish consumption. Unpleasant taste, expensive price, and lack of knowledge were the most important from the viewpoint of the frequency of reported barriers. Furthermore, gender, age, nutritional culture and habits were the most commonly reported factors affecting fish consumption. Before any planning it is vital to identify the most important factors influencing the consumption of fish and the most prominent barriers to consumption in the population studied. Considering the observed statistically significant correlation between demographic characteristics and fish consumption, various promotional programs for people with demographic differences should be applied.