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Evaluation of the Cancer Council NSW Eat It To Beat It Healthy Lunch Box Sessions: A short intervention to promote the intake of fruit and vegetables among families of primary school children in NSW Australia
Author(s) -
Mihrshahi Seema,
Foley Bridget,
Nguyen Binh,
Gander Kristi,
Tan Nina,
Hudson Nayerra,
Hughes Clare,
Hector Debra,
Bauman Adrian
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1002/hpja.23
Subject(s) - medicine , intervention (counseling) , health promotion , psychological intervention , cafeteria , environmental health , family medicine , gerontology , public health , nursing , pathology
Issue addressed Children and adults in Australia are not eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention to improve fruit and vegetable intake among primary school children and their families in NSW . Methods The Cancer Council New South Wales Healthy Lunch Box sessions were a 25‐minute session delivered to parents of primary school‐aged children. The sessions provided information and resources about fruit and vegetables and healthy school lunch boxes. The evaluation is a quantitative uncontrolled pre‐post design. Data were collected using three questionnaires, pre‐intervention, 1 week post‐intervention and 6 months post‐intervention. Results A total of 204 parents completed all three evaluation questionnaires to 6 months. Knowledge of recommended intakes and serving sizes of fruit and vegetables improved significantly after the intervention. There was an increase in parents reporting packing vegetables (often/always) in the child's lunch box at 1 week (47%) and 6 months post‐intervention (40%) compared to pre‐intervention (32%). The proportion of parents reporting that they were confident in packing a healthy lunch box increased from 45% pre‐intervention to 62% after the intervention. Conclusion The Healthy Lunch Box sessions were effective in improving parental knowledge and practices related to fruit and vegetables and parental confidence with packing a healthy lunch box. So what? This short intervention could be a useful component of a portfolio of interventions to support parents with knowledge and resources to pack a healthy lunch box for their children.