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Nutrition Education Intervention in Kindergarteners: Effects on Knowledge and Behavior
Author(s) -
Hoolihan Lori,
Larsen Andrew,
Liao Yue,
Dunton Genevieve Fridlund
Publication year - 2016
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.30.1_supplement.896.8
Subject(s) - nutrition education , psychological intervention , intervention (counseling) , formative assessment , fidelity , medicine , psychology , medical education , environmental health , gerontology , mathematics education , nursing , electrical engineering , engineering
Background Nutrition education is an integral component of establishing healthy eating habits in early childhood. Few nutrition interventions in kindergartens have been evaluated, and none have tested program effectiveness, implementation and dissemination. The Building a Healthy Me (BHM) is an 8‐unit classroom‐based nutrition education program for kindergarteners with a family component. This formative evaluation assessed the effectiveness of the BHM program in California kindergarteners at changing students’ knowledge and dietary intake and parents’ nutrition‐related parenting practices, using the RE‐AIM (Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework. Methods A quasi‐experimental design assessed pre‐to‐post‐survey changes in nutrition knowledge, dietary consumption and parenting behaviors in 25 Intervention classrooms (604 students); and post‐survey differences between the Intervention classrooms and 4 Control classrooms (103 students) in nutrition knowledge. Results Intervention students improved in their knowledge of food group classifications, healthy breakfast/snack options and importance of breakfast from pre‐to‐post‐survey, and scored higher than Control students in nutrition knowledge on the post‐survey (p < .05). From pre‐to‐post survey, intervention parents increased their use of food labels, and children increased intake of several healthy foods and decreased intake of candy and fried potatoes (p < .05). The BHM program reached 41% of kindergarteners attending public schools in California in the 2013–14 school year. Parent and teacher satisfaction with the program was high. Conclusions The BHM program was implemented with fidelity and was effective and broadly disseminated, highlighting its potential public health impact for kindergarteners. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the Dairy Council of California and the American Cancer Society (118283‐MRSGT‐10‐012‐01‐CPPB).