Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam

Schools are an attractive entry point to improve children’s diets, as their eating habits can be shaped during childhood and the information disseminated from school can reach adults through children. We implemented a cluster-randomized trial in 12 schools in peri-urban Viet Nam to assess if two sch...

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Autores principales: Nguyen, Trang, de Brauw, Alan, Van den Berg, Marrit, Do, Ha Thi Phuong
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142554
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author Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
Do, Ha Thi Phuong
author_browse Do, Ha Thi Phuong
Nguyen, Trang
Van den Berg, Marrit
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
Do, Ha Thi Phuong
author_sort Nguyen, Trang
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Schools are an attractive entry point to improve children’s diets, as their eating habits can be shaped during childhood and the information disseminated from school can reach adults through children. We implemented a cluster-randomized trial in 12 schools in peri-urban Viet Nam to assess if two school-based interventions increased knowledge of healthy diets among children and their parents, as well as children’s consumption of healthy foods. First, children were given lessons about food before school lunch and encouraged to share the lessons with their parents. Second, children were provided with healthy snacks to reinforce messages about healthy eating. We found that in the short term, the nutrition lessons raised the knowledge index score of the children by 0.35 standard deviation. After six months, this intervention lost its effectiveness, emphasizing the need for linkage between knowledge and practice. By itself, free access to fruit at school increased the children’s daily fruit consumption by half a portion, but not at the expense of home fruit consumption. Access to healthy foods at school can therefore be an effective measure to raise children’s healthy consumption. Child-parent communication was not a reliable channel for knowledge dissemination in our setting.
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spelling CGSpace1425542025-12-09T21:37:15Z Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam Nguyen, Trang de Brauw, Alan Van den Berg, Marrit Do, Ha Thi Phuong child nutrition school feeding health child health healthy diets vegetables schoolchildren nutrition education nutrition fruits children schools snack foods food consumption diet food intake Schools are an attractive entry point to improve children’s diets, as their eating habits can be shaped during childhood and the information disseminated from school can reach adults through children. We implemented a cluster-randomized trial in 12 schools in peri-urban Viet Nam to assess if two school-based interventions increased knowledge of healthy diets among children and their parents, as well as children’s consumption of healthy foods. First, children were given lessons about food before school lunch and encouraged to share the lessons with their parents. Second, children were provided with healthy snacks to reinforce messages about healthy eating. We found that in the short term, the nutrition lessons raised the knowledge index score of the children by 0.35 standard deviation. After six months, this intervention lost its effectiveness, emphasizing the need for linkage between knowledge and practice. By itself, free access to fruit at school increased the children’s daily fruit consumption by half a portion, but not at the expense of home fruit consumption. Access to healthy foods at school can therefore be an effective measure to raise children’s healthy consumption. Child-parent communication was not a reliable channel for knowledge dissemination in our setting. 2021-05-31 2024-05-22T12:10:40Z 2024-05-22T12:10:40Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142554 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133777 Open Access Elsevier Nguyen, Trang; de Brauw, Alan; Van den berg, Marrit; and Do, Ha Thi Phuong. 2021. Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam. Food 101(May 2021): 102047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102047
spellingShingle child nutrition
school feeding
health
child health
healthy diets
vegetables
schoolchildren
nutrition education
nutrition
fruits
children
schools
snack foods
food consumption
diet
food intake
Nguyen, Trang
de Brauw, Alan
Van den Berg, Marrit
Do, Ha Thi Phuong
Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title_full Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title_fullStr Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title_full_unstemmed Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title_short Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
title_sort testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods evidence from a school based field experiment in viet nam
topic child nutrition
school feeding
health
child health
healthy diets
vegetables
schoolchildren
nutrition education
nutrition
fruits
children
schools
snack foods
food consumption
diet
food intake
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142554
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