en public specific orginal article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">Background: </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">To improve dairy consumption among children, it is crucial to explore probable barriers and facilitators toward it. The current qualitative study aims to discover barriers and facilitators of dairy intake among school-age children in Tehran to suggest strategies to improve it based on the optimal components of social marketing. <b>Methods: </b>In a qualitative study, 111 school-age children (mean age </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">10.08&plusmn;0.57 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">years) were selected by purposive sampling with maximum</span></span></span></span> <span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">diversity from primary schools in three areas of Tehran. Sixteen f</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">ocus group discussions (FGDs) were separately conducted among students in different grades. Contents of the FGDs were analyzed using MAXQDA₂₀₁₀. </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">Results: </span></span></span></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">Food and nutrition literacy, improvement of attitude and trust-building, training taste and food preferences were the main facilitators to increase dairy products among school-age children. Barriers related to dairy products consumption included negative attitudes toward dairy products, unsound tastes, and unhealthy food preferences. The main suggested strategies to increase dairy consumption were improvement of the products&#39; sensory and non-sensory characteristics, providing the milk and dairy products consumption experience for free, improvement of the quality of preserving places, enhancing physical and economic availability of dairy products. Dairy stores and school buffets were mentioned as the best places for supply. Encouragement and motivation, education and information, modeling and promoting appropriate culture were suggested as the main promotion strategies. </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Conclusion</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">: </span></span></span></b><a name="_Hlk74247588"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">To provide practical strategies for increasing dairy consumption among children, the perceived<b> </b>barriers and facilitators mentioned by them should be addressed. </span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> Milk, Dairy consumption, Social marketing, Qualitative study, School-age children 167 180 http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-363-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Maryam Amini 0000-0002-5279-213X No Department of Nutrition Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute and School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Azam Doustmohammadian mohammadian.az@iums.ac.ir 0000-0001-6249-2520 Yes Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Samira Rabiei 0000-0002-3606-8969 No Department of Nutrition Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute and School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Marjan Bazhan 0000-0001-5258-9679 No Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mitra Abtahi 0000-0001-8807-0705 No Department of Nutrition Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute and School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.