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The effects of a fruit and vegetable promotion intervention on unhealthy snacks during mid‐morning school breaks: results of the Dutch Schoolgruiten Project
Author(s) -
Tak N. I.,
Te Velde S. J.,
Singh A. S.,
Brug J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of human nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1365-277X
pISSN - 0952-3871
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-277x.2010.01090.x
Subject(s) - medicine , confidence interval , morning , odds ratio , consumption (sociology) , environmental health , calorie , logistic regression , intervention (counseling) , health promotion , demography , gerontology , public health , social science , nursing , psychiatry , sociology
Background: Ample fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake has been associated with a decreased risk of chronic disease. The health‐enhancing effects of increased F&V consumption, however, would be even more apparent if the increased F&V consumption additionally led to a lower intake of unhealthy, high calorie snacks. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether a primary school‐based intervention (the Dutch Schoolgruiten Project) that promoted F&V intake could additionally reduce the intake of unhealthy, high calorie snacks during school breaks. Methods: The study applied a longitudinal design with baseline and two follow‐up measurements. Children were aged 9–10 years old at baseline; 705 children were included. The main strategy was a F&V scheme that improved the availability, accessibility and exposure to F&V at school by providing one serving of fruit or vegetables twice a week at no cost. The amounts of F&V and unhealthy snacks for consumption at school were measured using a single‐item question included in a questionnaire. Multilevel autoregressive logistic regression models with a three‐level structure (school, child and time) were used to assess the effect of the intervention on both F&V and unhealthy snack consumption. Results: The children of the intervention group brought F&V from home to school at follow‐up significantly more often than the children of the control schools [odds ratio (OR) = 1.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.04; 1.90] and brought fewer unhealthy snacks (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.34; 0.92). Conclusion: The present study provides some evidence that the Schoolgruiten intervention effect on F&V intake also reduced unhealthy snacking during school breaks.