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...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
International Food Policy Research Institute
2020
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143521 |
| _version_ | 1855527416545411072 |
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| author | Nguyen, Trang de Brauw, Alan van den Berg, Marrit Phuong Ha, Do Thi |
| author_browse | Nguyen, Trang Phuong Ha, Do Thi de Brauw, Alan van den Berg, Marrit |
| author_facet | Nguyen, Trang de Brauw, Alan van den Berg, Marrit Phuong Ha, Do Thi |
| 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 for five weeks 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 retained its effectiveness only for the children who also received free access to fruit, emphasizing the 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. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace143521 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1435212025-12-02T21:03:03Z 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 Phuong Ha, Do Thi health foods child nutrition health school feeding healthy diets schoolchildren nutrition education nutrition food consumption diet 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 for five weeks 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 retained its effectiveness only for the children who also received free access to fruit, emphasizing the 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. 2020-05-01 2024-05-22T12:14:49Z 2024-05-22T12:14:49Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143521 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133156 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134319 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134565 https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293670_06 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160017 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Nguyen, Trang; de Brauw, Alan; van den Berg, Marrit; and Phuong Ha, Do Thi. 2020. Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods: Evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1939. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133777. |
| spellingShingle | health foods child nutrition health school feeding healthy diets schoolchildren nutrition education nutrition food consumption diet Nguyen, Trang de Brauw, Alan van den Berg, Marrit Phuong Ha, Do Thi 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 | health foods child nutrition health school feeding healthy diets schoolchildren nutrition education nutrition food consumption diet |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143521 |
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