Promoting school lunch fruit and vegetable intake through role modeling: a pilot study

Child fruit and vegetable consumption is a critical component of adult chronic disease prevention, yet fruit and vegetable intake remains low among elementary school children in the United States. This pilot study tested a role modeling intervention designed to promote fruit and vegetable consumptio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	AIMS public health Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 10 - 19
Main Authors:	Machado, Stephanie S, Burton, Michael, Loy, Wes, Chapman, Kyle A
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States AIMS Press 01-01-2020
Subjects:	fruits and vegetables intervention role modeling schools united states fruits and vegetables intervention United States schools role modeling
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Child fruit and vegetable consumption is a critical component of adult chronic disease prevention, yet fruit and vegetable intake remains low among elementary school children in the United States. This pilot study tested a role modeling intervention designed to promote fruit and vegetable consumption in a U.S elementary school cafeteria setting. This one-year, repeated cross-sectional study used digital photographs to assess fruit and vegetable waste at baseline (n = 566 trays) and follow-up (n = 231 trays) of kindergarten through fifth grade students in one elementary school. Differences in waste were assessed through Mann-Whitney statistical tests. Feedback on intervention acceptability was provided by the intervention team during implementation. The proportion of students consuming all of their selected fruits and vegetables increased by 11.1% and 8.7% respectively (p < 0.01). There was a significant decrease in the proportion of students not consuming any of their selected fruit (16.0%, p < 0.001). Staff and students provided positive reports of intervention acceptance. Findings from this pilot study indicate that role modeling in a school cafeteria setting may be a promising health promotion strategy and provide groundwork for future research in the development of school cafeteria role modeling interventions. Further research is needed to assess intervention efficacy and acceptability at a larger scale.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2327-8994 2327-8994
DOI:	10.3934/publichealth.2020002