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Children's body mass index and school meal participation during the 4th‐grade school year
Author(s) -
Paxton Amy,
Baxter Suzanne D,
Royer Julie A,
Guinn Caroline H,
Delvin Christina M
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.603.1
There is concern that participation in food assistance programs, such as the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), may be related to obesity. We used existing data from R01 HL63189 from 4 studies with 4 th ‐grade children to examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and SBP and NSLP participation. Data were available on a total of 1,535 children (51% Black; 49% boys; mean age 10.2 ± 0.52 years) for 4 school years (fall 1999 to spring 2003; 1 study per school year) at a total of 15 schools in Augusta, GA. Participation in SBP, NSLP, and combined (on the same day) were determined from nametag records compiled on 6 to 51 (average 10 to 34) random days. Research staff weighed and measured children in the afternoon in March for Studies A, B, and C, and in the morning in November for Study D. We ran linear regression with BMI as the dependent variable and school as the random effect; independent variables were SBP participation, NSLP participation, combined participation, sex, age, race, and study. We repeated analyses with BMI z score as the dependent variable and excluded sex and age as independent variables. Results showed that SBP, NSLP, and combined participation were not significant for analysis of BMI or BMI z score (p values > 0.4471). Our results do not support a relationship between school meal participation and BMI during 4 th grade. Funded by R21 HL96035.