Possible effects of a free, healthy school meal on overall meal frequency among 10-12-year-olds in Norway : The School Meal Project

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Serving of free school lunch to secondary-school pupils - a pilot study with health implications

Published version of an article from the journal Public Health Nutrition, Copyright Cambridge University Press. Article also available from publisher: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980009990772Objective: To study whether service of a free school lunch has an impact on weight development and food intake among pupils at a lower secondary school, and to assess the association between self-perceived school behaviour and food intake. Design: A controlled intervention study involving service of a free healthy school lunch to 9th grade pupils took place over 4 months, from January to May 2007. Weight and height were measured before and after the intervention. The pupils also completed a short FFQ and a questionnaire concerning self-perceived school behaviour and the classroom environment before and after the intervention. A healthy food score was calculated using the FFQ data. Setting: All 9th graders at three different lower secondary schools in southern Norway were invited to participate. One school was randomly selected as the intervention school. Subjects: Fifty-eight pupils (91 %) from the intervention school and ninety-two pupils (77 %) from the control schools participated. Results: BMI did not increase among the girls at the intervention school, but increased significantly among the boys at the intervention school and among the control school groups. The healthy food score correlated positively with the trait ‘satisfied with schoolwork’ (P,0?001). Fifteen per cent of the variance in food score could be explained by gender and the trait ‘satisfied with schoolwork’. Conclusions: Serving of a healthy free school lunch to secondary-school pupils may result in restricted weight gain. Further studies are needed to clarify the impact of school meals on overweight and academic performance

Evaluation of the UP4FUN Intervention: A Cluster Randomized Trial to Reduce and Break Up Sitting Time in European 10-12-Year-Old Children

Background: The UP4FUN intervention is a family-involved school-based intervention aiming at reducing and breaking up sitting time at home (with special emphasis on screen time), and breaking up sitting time in school among 10--12 year olds in Europe. The purpose of the present paper was to evaluate its short term effects. Methodology/Principal Findings: A total of 3147 pupils from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Norway participated in a school-randomized controlled trial. The intervention included 1–2 school lessons per week for a period of six weeks, along with assignments for the children and their parents. Screen time and breaking up sitting time were registered by self-report and total sedentary time and breaking up sitting time by accelerometry. The effect of the intervention on these behaviors was evaluated by multilevel regression analyses. All analyses were adjusted for baseline values and gender. Significance level was p≤0.01. No significant intervention effects were observed, neither for self-reported TV/DVD or computer/game console time, nor for accelerometer-assessed total sedentary time and number of breaks in sitting time. The intervention group, however, reported more positive attitudes towards (β = 0.25 (95% CI 0.11, 0.38)) and preferences/liking for (β = 0.20 (95% CI 0.08, 0.32)) breaking up sitting time than the control group. Conclusions/Significance: No significant intervention effect on self-reported screen time or accelerometer-assessed sedentary time or breaks in sitting time was observed, but positive effects on beliefs regarding breaking up sitting time were found in favor of the intervention group. Overall, these results do not warrant wider dissemination of the present UP4FUN intervention. Trial Registration: International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry ISRCTN3456207

The impact of diet during adolescence on the neonatal health of offspring:evidence on the importance of preconception diet. The HUNT study

Emerging evidence suggests that parents’ nutritional status before and at the time of conception influences the lifelong physical and mental health of their child. Yet little is known about the relationship between diet in adolescence and the health of the next generation at birth. This study examined data from Norwegian cohorts to assess the relationship between dietary patterns in adolescence and neonatal outcomes. Data from adolescents who participated in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (Young-HUNT) were merged with birth data for their offspring through the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Young-HUNT1 collected data from 8980 adolescents between 1995 and 1997. Linear regression was used to assess associations between adolescents’ diet and later neonatal outcomes of their offspring adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Analyses were replicated with data from the Young-HUNT3 cohort (dietary data collected from 2006 to 2008) and combined with Young-HUNT1 for pooled analyses. In Young-HUNT1, there was evidence of associations between dietary choices, meal patterns, and neonatal outcomes, these were similar in the pooled analyses but were attenuated to the point of nonsignificance in the smaller Young-HUNT3 cohort. Overall, energy-dense food products were associated with a small detrimental impact on some neonatal outcomes, whereas healthier food choices appeared protective. Our study suggests that there are causal links between consumption of healthy and unhealthy food and meal patterns in adolescence with neonatal outcomes for offspring some years later. The effects seen are small and will require even larger studies with more state-of-the-art dietary assessment to estimate these robustly

The association of breakfast skipping and television viewing at breakfast with weight status among parents of 10-12-year-olds in eight European countries; the ENERGY (EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth) cross-sectional study

Abstract Objective The main objective was to assess the relationship of breakfast skipping, television (TV) viewing at breakfast and breakfast without TV with weight status among parents of 10-12-year-olds in eight European countries. Design A cross-sectional survey assessed breakfast eating and TV viewing at breakfast by three frequency questions and parents were categorized into: (i) breakfast skippers; (ii) breakfast with TV (TV watchers at breakfast); and (iii) breakfast without TV (breakfast eaters who do not watch TV during breakfast). Self-reported weight and height were used to categorize weight status as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted with weight status as the dependent variable and breakfast habits as predictors, adjusting for sex, ethnicity and level of education. Setting The survey was conducted in 2010 in 199 primary schools across eight European countries participating in the ENERGY (EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth) cross-sectional study. Subjects Parents (n 6512) of 10-12-year-olds responded to the questionnaire. Results In the total study sample, with breakfast without TV as the reference group and adjusting for sex, ethnicity and level of education, the OR of being respectively overweight or obese (compared with normal weight) was 1·2 (95 % CI 1·0, 1·4) or 1·8 (95 % CI 1·5, 2·3) for breakfast skippers. The OR of being respectively underweight or obese was 0·5 (95 % CI 0·2, 0·9) or 1·4 (95 % CI 1·1, 1·8) for breakfast with TV. Conclusions Breakfast skippers were significantly more likely to be overweight and obese, and those eating breakfast while watching TV were significantly more likely to be obese and less likely to be underweigh

Test-retest reliability and construct validity of the ENERGY-parent questionnaire on parenting practices, energy balance-related behaviours and their potential behavioural determinants: The ENERGY-project

Published version from the journal: BMC Research Notes. Also available from BMC: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-434 Open AccessBackground: Insight in parental energy balance-related behaviours, their determinants and parenting practices are important to inform childhood obesity prevention. Therefore, reliable and valid tools to measure these variables in large-scale population research are needed. The objective of the current study was to examine the test-retest reliability and construct validity of the parent questionnaire used in the ENERGY-project, assessing parental energy balance-related behaviours, their determinants, and parenting practices among parents of 10–12 year old children. Findings: We collected data among parents (n=316 in the test-retest reliability study; n=109 in the construct validity study) of 10–12 year-old children in six European countries, i.e. Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain. Test-retest reliability was assessed using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and percentage agreement comparing scores from two measurements, administered one week apart. To assess construct validity, the agreement between questionnaire responses and a subsequent interview was assessed using ICC and percentage agreement. All but one item showed good to excellent test-retest reliability as indicated by ICCs>.60 or percentage agreement≥75%. Construct validity appeared to be good to excellent for 92 out of 121 items, as indicated by ICCs>.60 or percentage agreement≥75%. From the other 29 items, construct validity was moderate for 24 and poor for 5 items. Conclusions: The reliability and construct validity of the items of the ENERGY-parent questionnaire on multiple energy balance-related behaviours, their potential determinants, and parenting practices appears to be good. Based on the results of the validity study, we strongly recommend adapting parts of the ENERGY-parent questionnaire if used in future research