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Nutrition Education and Body Mass Index in Grades K‐12: A Systematic Review
Author(s) -
Price Cayla,
Cohen Deborah,
Pribis Peter,
Cerami Jean
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12544
Subject(s) - cinahl , overweight , body mass index , medicine , percentile , obesity , gerontology , underweight , childhood obesity , nutrition education , demography , family medicine , psychological intervention , nursing , statistics , mathematics , pathology , sociology
BACKGROUND Overweight and obese body mass index (BMI) status affects an increasing number of children in the United States. The school setting has been identified as a focus area to implement obesity prevention programs. METHODS A database search of PubMed, Education Search Complete, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was conducted for peer‐reviewed articles published between January 2005 and December 2015 pertaining to programs offered in the school setting to grades K‐12 in the United States with a nutrition education component and measured BMI percentile or BMI z‐score as an outcome. RESULTS Seven studies focused on elementary (K‐5) populations and 2 studies focused on grades 6‐8. Among the 9 identified studies, those with long‐term (greater than 1 year) implementation showed more pronounced results with positive impact on reducing overweight/obese BMI measures. CONCLUSIONS This set of studies suggests that long‐term nutrition education delivered in the school setting can provide children with tools to attain a healthy weight status. Additional studies examining participants' BMI status years after the initial study, and studies examining programs in grades 9‐12 are needed to determine the most effective delivery time and methods.