14 research outputs found
Is the environment in kindergarten associated with the vegetables served and eaten? The BRA Study
This is an author accepted manuscript.Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between the economic, political, sociocultural and physical environments in kindergartens, along with the frequency and variety of vegetables served, and the amount of vegetables eaten. Method: The BRA Study collected data through two paper-based questionnaires answered by the kindergarten leader and pedagogical leader of each selected kindergarten, and a five-day vegetable diary from kindergartens (n = 73) in Vestfold and Buskerud Counties, Norway. The questionnaires assessed environmental factors, and the frequency and variety of vegetables served. The non-parametric MannâWhitney U and KruskalâWallis tests were used to explore the associations between factors in the kindergarten environments and vegetables served and eaten. Results: Kindergartens that included expenditures for food and beverages in the parental fees served a larger variety of vegetables (p = 0.046). A higher frequency of served vegetables (p = 0.014) and a larger amount (p = 0.027) of vegetables eaten were found in kindergartens where parents paid a monthly fee of 251 NOK or more. Similarly, the amount of vegetables eaten was higher (p = 0.017) in kindergartens where the employees paid a monthly fee to eat at work. Furthermore, a larger amount (p = 0.046) of vegetables was eaten in kindergartens that had written guidelines for food and beverages that were offered. Conclusions: This study indicates that the economic environment in a kindergarten seems to be positively associated with the vegetables served and eaten there. This is of high relevance for public health policy as vegetable consumption is an important factor in reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases.acceptedVersio
Exploring food environment-related factors in Norwegian kindergartens and their role in vegetable promotion
Despite clear health benefits and recommendations, consumption of vegetables in children remains far too low. Although many studies have focused on increasing vegetable intake by children aged up to 5 years, only a few studies have focused on how to make sustainable and supportive changes in the kindergarten environment to promote vegetable intake.
In the present project, we designed, implemented and evaluated the BRA study (an acronym for the Norwegian words Barnehage [kindergarten], gRĂžnnsaker [vegetables] and fAmilie [family]), a kindergarten based intervention to promote and increase vegetable intake of children aged 3-5 years, and to make supportive and sustainable changes in the kindergarten and home environments to promote vegetable intake. Specifically, in this PhD-project, we investigated association of factors in the kindergarten environment with vegetables served and eaten, evaluated the effect of the intervention on vegetables served, and explored associations between workplace climate and culture in the kindergartens and the staffâs food-related practices and vegetables served, and the mediating role of staffâs food-related practices.
We found that factors in the economic environment might be important with regard to vegetables served and eaten, as well as some factors in the political environment. Also, some factors in the workplace climate and culture in the kindergarten seemed to be associated with the staffâs food-related practices, and the frequency and variety of vegetables served. Further, the evaluation of the intervention showed that the BRA-study was successful in increasing the variety and amount of vegetables served in the kindergartens.
In conclusion, this PhD thesis highlighted several aspects within the kindergarten food environment that can affect the promotion of vegetables to children aged 3-5 years, which should be further investigated to understand how to make sustainable changes in the kindergartenâs food environment
Early Promotion of Healthy Dietary Habits: Targeting Kindergarten and Home Environments in a Three-Armed Intervention Study, 2015
The project "Early Promotion of Healthy Dietary Habits: Targeting Kindergarten and Home Environments in a Three-Armed Intervention Study, 2015" was carried out by researchers at the University of Oslo in collaboration with national and international expertise. The project was carried out in 73 kindergartens in Vestfold and Buskerud, and included children born in 2010 and 2011. 37 kindergartens got the intervention program in 2015/2016 in addition to participation in the data collection. Data was collected during spring in 2015, 2016 and 2017. This dataset is supportive material for the paper "Exploring the workplace climate and culture in relation to food environment-related factors in Norwegian kindergartens: The BRA-study". Data are freely available for downloading
Associations between sociocultural home environmental factors and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3?5-year olds: BRA-study
The home environment is the first environment to shape childhood dietary habits and food preferences, hence greater understanding of home environmental factors associated with vegetable consumption among young children is needed.
The objective has been to examine questionnaire items developed to measure the sociocultural home environment of children focusing on vegetables and to assess the psychometric properties of the resulting factors. Further, to explore associations between the environmental factors and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3â5 year olds.
Parents (n 633) were invited to participate and filled in a questionnaire assessing the child's vegetable intake and factors potentially influencing this, along with a 24-h recall of their child's fruit and vegetable intake. Children's fruit and vegetable intakes at two meals in one day in the kindergarten were observed by researchers.
Principal components analysis was used to examine items assessing the sociocultural home environment. Encouragement items resulted in factors labelled âreactive encouragementâ, âchild involvementâ and ârewardâ. Modelling items resulted in the factors labelled âactive role modelâ and âpractical role modelâ. Items assessing negative parental attitudes resulted in the factor labelled ânegative parental attitudesâ and items assessing family pressure/demand resulted in the factor labelled âfamily demandâ. The psychometric properties of the factors were for most satisfactory. Linear regression of the associations between vegetable intake and the factors showed, as expected, generally positive associations with âchild involvementâ, âpractical role modelâ and âfamily demandâ, and negative associations with ânegative parental attitudesâ and ârewardâ. Unexpectedly, âreactive encouragementâ was negatively associated with vegetable consumption.
In conclusion, associations between sociocultural home environmental factors and children's vegetable consumption showed both expected and unexpected associations some of which differed by maternal education â pointing to a need for further comparable studies
Associations between sociocultural home environmental factors and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3?5-year olds: BRA-study
The home environment is the first environment to shape childhood dietary habits and food preferences, hence greater understanding of home environmental factors associated with vegetable consumption among young children is needed.
The objective has been to examine questionnaire items developed to measure the sociocultural home environment of children focusing on vegetables and to assess the psychometric properties of the resulting factors. Further, to explore associations between the environmental factors and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3â5 year olds.
Parents (n 633) were invited to participate and filled in a questionnaire assessing the child's vegetable intake and factors potentially influencing this, along with a 24-h recall of their child's fruit and vegetable intake. Children's fruit and vegetable intakes at two meals in one day in the kindergarten were observed by researchers.
Principal components analysis was used to examine items assessing the sociocultural home environment. Encouragement items resulted in factors labelled âreactive encouragementâ, âchild involvementâ and ârewardâ. Modelling items resulted in the factors labelled âactive role modelâ and âpractical role modelâ. Items assessing negative parental attitudes resulted in the factor labelled ânegative parental attitudesâ and items assessing family pressure/demand resulted in the factor labelled âfamily demandâ. The psychometric properties of the factors were for most satisfactory. Linear regression of the associations between vegetable intake and the factors showed, as expected, generally positive associations with âchild involvementâ, âpractical role modelâ and âfamily demandâ, and negative associations with ânegative parental attitudesâ and ârewardâ. Unexpectedly, âreactive encouragementâ was negatively associated with vegetable consumption.
In conclusion, associations between sociocultural home environmental factors and children's vegetable consumption showed both expected and unexpected associations some of which differed by maternal education â pointing to a need for further comparable studies
Effects of a kindergarten intervention on vegetables served and staffâs food-related practices: results of a cluster randomised controlled trialâthe BRA study
Objective:
The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect on frequency, variety and amount of vegetables served and staffâs food-related practices in the multicomponent BRA intervention.
Design:
Cluster randomised controlled trial, conducted between Spring 2015 and Spring 2016. For allocation of the kindergartens, a stratified block randomisation was used. Data were collected in three ways: (i) a questionnaire for pedagogical leaders assessing the variety and frequency of vegetables served, including staffâs food-related practices assumed to be related to vegetable intake; (ii) a questionnaire for kindergarten assistants assessing staffâs food-related practices; (iii) a 5-d weighted vegetable diary assessing amount of vegetables served in a department.
Setting:
The target group for this study was public and private kindergartens in the counties of Vestfold and Buskerud, Norway.
Participants:
A total of seventy-three kindergartens participated.
Results:
At follow-up I, the amount of vegetables served increased by approximately 20 g per person per day (P = 0·002), and the variety in served vegetables increased by one-and-a-half kind per month (P = 0·014) in the intervention group compared to the control group. No effects on the frequency of vegetables served or on staffâs food-related practices were found.
Conclusions:
The BRA intervention was successful in increasing the amount and variety of vegetables served within intervention kindergartens. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms that can affect the staffâs food-related practices
Associations between physical home environmental factors and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3-5-year-olds: the BRA-study
Objective: First, to explore item pools developed to measure the physical home environment of pre-school children and assess the psychometric properties of these item pools; second, to explore associations between this environment and vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3â5-year-olds.
Design: Data were collected in three steps: (i) a parental web-based questionnaire assessing the childâs vegetable intake and factors potentially influencing the childâs vegetable consumption; (ii) direct observation of the childrenâs fruit, berry and vegetable intakes at two meals in one day in the kindergarten; and (iii) a parental web-based 24 h recall.
Results: Principal component analysis on the thirteen-item pool assessing availability/accessibility resulted in two factors labelled âavailability at homeâ and âaccessibility at homeâ, while the eight-item pool assessing barriers resulted in two factors labelled âserving barriersâ and âpurchase barriersâ. The psychometric properties of these factors were satisfactory. Linear regression of the associations between vegetable intake and the factors showed generally positive associations with âavailability at homeâ and âaccessibility at homeâ and negative associations with âserving barriersâ.
Conclusions: This age group has so far been understudied and there is a need for comparable studies. Our findings highlight the importance of targeting the physical home environment of pre-school children in future interventions as there are important modifiable factors that both promote and hinder vegetable consumption in this environment.
This research was originally published in Public Health Nutrition. © 2016 Cambridge University Pres
Effects of a cluster randomized controlled kindergarten-based intervention trial on vegetable consumption among Norwegian 3â5-year-olds: the BRA-study
Background
Early childhood represents a critical period for the establishment of long-lasting healthy dietary habits. Limited knowledge exists on how to successfully increase vegetable consumption among preschool children. The overall aim of the present study was to improve vegetable intake among preschool children in a kindergarten-based randomized controlled trial.
Methods
The target group was preschool children born in 2010 and 2011, attending public or private kindergartens in two counties in Norway. Data about child intake of vegetables were collected by three methods. First, parents filled in a web-based questionnaire of the childâs vegetable intake. Second, among a subsample, trained researchers observed childrenâs vegetable intake in the kindergarten. Thirdly, a parental web-based 24-h recall assessing the childâs vegetable intake was filled in. For allocation of kindergartens to intervention and control groups, a stratified block randomization was used. Multiple intervention components were implemented from September 2015 to February 2016 and components focused at influencing the four determinants availability, accessibility, encouragement and role modelling. The effect of the intervention from baseline (spring 2015) to follow-up 1 (spring 2016) was assessed by mixed-model analysis taking the clustering effect of kindergartens into account.
Results
Parental consent was obtained for 38.8% of the children (633 out of 1631 eligible children). Based on the observational data in the kindergarten setting (n 218 in the control group and n 217 in the intervention group), a tendency to a small positive effect was seen as a mean difference of 13.3âg vegetables/day (95% CI: ââ0.2, 26.9) (Pâ=â0.054) was observed.
No significant overall effects were found for the total daily vegetable intake or for the parental reported frequency or variety in vegetable intake.
Conclusions
Based on the observational data in the kindergarten setting, a tendency to a small positive effect was seen with a mean difference of about 13âg vegetables/day, while no other effects on child vegetable intake were found. Additionally, further research to understand the best strategies to involve parents in dietary interventions studies is warranted.
Trial registration
International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials
ISRCTN51962956
. Registered 21 June 2016 (retrospectively registered)
Exploring intervention components in association with changes in preschool childrenâs vegetable intake: the BRA-study
Objective
The present study aimed to explore kindergarten staffsâ perceived usefulness of intervention components in association with changes in childrenâs vegetable intake and vegetables served in the kindergarten. Assessment of the perceived usefulness of intervention components consisted of a paper-based questionnaire for the kindergarten staff assessing usefulness of posters, supplementary material and 1-day inspirational course. Childrenâs vegetable intake in the kindergarten was assessed by direct observation, while vegetables served was assessed by a 5-day weighted vegetable diary.
Results
Seventy-three kindergartens in two counties in Norway participated (response rate 15%) and parental consent was obtained for 633 children 3â5Â years of age at baseline (response rate 39%). Mixed effect models indicated a tendency that posters were associated with increased child vegetable intake (Pâ=â0.062). Surprisingly, a low degree of perceived usefulness of supplementary material was associated with the largest increase in child vegetable intake (Pâ=â0.020). No significant associations between perceived usefulness of intervention components and vegetables served in the kindergarten were found. This study indicated a tendency that posters were associated with increased child vegetable intake; however, this may also be due to synergies between multiple intervention components.
Trial registration International Standard Randomized Controlled Trials ISRCTN51962956 (
http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN51962956
). Registered 21 June 2016 (retrospectively registered)
Long-term effects of a cluster randomized controlled kindergarten-based intervention trial on vegetable intake among Norwegian 3â5-year-olds: the BRA-study
Objective
To report on long-term effects of a cluster randomized controlled kindergarten-based intervention trial, which aimed to increase vegetable intake among Norwegian preschool children (3â5Â years at baseline). The effects of the intervention at follow-up 1 (immediately post-intervention) have previously been published. This paper presents the effects of the intervention from baseline to follow-up 2 (12Â months post-intervention).
Results
Parental consents were obtained for 633 out of 1631 eligible children (response rate 38.8%). The effects of the intervention from baseline to follow-up 2 were assessed by mixed-model analyses taking the clustering effect of kindergartens into account. Childrenâs vegetable intake was reported by the parents at baseline (spring 2015), at follow-up 1 (spring 2016) and at follow-up 2 (spring 2017). No significant long-term effects in child vegetable intake were found. A mean difference of ââ0.1 times per day (95% CI ââ0.5, 0.2) (Pâ=â0.44) was found for the daily frequency of vegetable intake. A mean difference of ââ0.2 different kinds of vegetables eaten over a month (95% CI ââ1.0, 0.7) (Pâ=â0.70) was found and for daily amount of vegetables a mean difference of ââ15.0Â g vegetables (95% CI ââ38.0, 8.0) (Pâ=â0.19) was found.
Trial registration International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials ISRCTN51962956 (http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN51962956). Registered 21 June 2016 (retrospectively registered