(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
Another article in the May 2018 issue of Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior underlines the value of a food literacy approach to healthy eating. Health Literacy, including Food Literacy is defined as the basic knowledge, skills and beliefs needed as a prerequisite for sustainable behaviour change over the life course. An analysis of data from the Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults longitudinal study was done. "Participants reported on adequacy of cooking skills in 2002–2003 (age 18–23 years) and subsequently reported on nutrition-related outcomes in 2015–2016 (age 30–35 years) (n = 1,158). Separate regression models were used to examine associations between cooking skills at age 18–23 years and each subsequent outcome. One fourth of participants described their cooking skills as very adequate at 18–23 years, with no statistically significant differences by sociodemographic characteristics. Reports of very adequate cooking skills at age 18–23 years predicted better nutrition-related outcomes 10 years later, such as more frequent preparation of meals including vegetables (P < .001) and less frequent fast food consumption (P < .001)." This article is also important in regard to the realistic expectations of outputs from schools. The expectation is that schools can increase cooking skills for their students but is up to those students to choose to use those skills. This is much the same way that schools are expected to teach basic reading skills but are not held accountable for life long reading habits. Read more....
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
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Two articles in the Journal of Nutrition Education & Behaviour mark the re-emergence of multi-intervention approaches to promoting healthy eating and nutrition. frameworks to guide the development of such multi-intervention programs in schools have existed for many years but the renewed interest is welcome. As is often the case, the terminology is re-invented but the meaning and value remains much the same. One article describes a "Policy, Systems, and Environmental Approach" for nutrition education. (go to: https://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(18)30108-8/fulltext). The second article is a statement from the US position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, School Nutrition Association, and Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. They recommend "specific strategies in the following key areas: food and nutrition services available throughout the school campus; nutrition initiatives such as farm to school and school gardens; wellness policies; nutrition education and promotion; food and beverage marketing at school; and consideration of roles and responsibilities." Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) A news story in the New York Times reports on how big business got Brazil hooked on Junk Food. As growth slows in wealthy countries, Western food companies are aggressively expanding in developing nations, contributing to obesity and health problems. "Nestlé’s direct-sales army in Brazil is part of a broader transformation of the food system that is delivering Western-style processed food and sugary drinks to the most isolated pockets of Latin America, Africa and Asia. As their growth slows in the wealthiest countries, multinational food companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo and General Mills have been aggressively expanding their presence in developing nations, unleashing a marketing juggernaut that is upending traditional diets from Brazil to Ghana to India." Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) A review of data from the Health Behaviours of School-Age Children (HBSC) surveys between 2002 and 2014 hase been published by the WHO Regional Office. "This report presents the latest trends in obesity, eating behaviours, physical activity and sedentary behaviour from the HBSC study and highlights gender and socioeconomic inequalities across the WHO European Region. Trends have previously been reported separately, but this report brings together for the first time HBSC data on obesity and obesity-related behaviours." The report notes that "Obesity continues to increase in all but a very few countries and regions, with disparities within and between them being marked. Trend data on dietary and physical activity behaviours are more mixed, but show some improvements for some age groups in some countries. Overall, however, the indicators show that adolescents’ dietary behaviours remain far from optimal, with too many sugary products and not enough fruit and vegetables consumed. At the same time, physical activity as part of daily life has been reduced to the bare minimum: adolescents spend most of their time sedentary. This paints a rather bleak picture that requires ambitious policy action." The report shows that some mixed progress has been made in eating habits, physical activity and sedentary time.
Although the HBSC survey reports only on behaviours and there is no mechanism to correlate or track the introduction of healthy school food policies and increases in physical activity time within the school day, we can safely assume that these HBSC data trends have coincided with increased efforts by schools to prevent obesity. Consequently, we need to question if these school-based efforts alone are sufficient to truly make a difference over the long term. A similar analysis of Canadian efforts (McCall, 2013), reported that similar little progress had been made after two decades of obesity prevention and heart healthy programs in that country. In our view, this HBSC report requires us to ask some essential but possibly inconvenient questions:
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) A research review published in the September 2017 issue of the Journal of School Health found that " Seven studies focused on elementary (K-5) populations and 2 studies focused on grades 6-8. Among the 9 identified studies, those with long-term (greater than 1 year) implementation showed more pronounced results with positive impact on reducing overweight/obese BMI measures. This set of studies suggests that long-term nutrition education delivered in the school setting can provide children with tools to attain a healthy weight status. Additional studies examining participants' BMI status years after the initial study, and studies examining programs in grades 9-12 are needed to determine the most effective delivery time and methods." Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) An article in the September 2016 issue of the Journal of School Health reports on an analysis of school district wellness policies relative to the recommendations of the US Department of Agriculture. "Wellness policies were collected from 10 large, 29 medium, and 31 small school districts in a rural Midwest state. District size was categorized by the average daily membership in grades 9-11. Polices were coded using the Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT). Strength and comprehensiveness of the full policy and policy sections were compared among small, medium, and large districts using 1-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs). There was a difference in the total combined (p = .041), total comprehensiveness (p = .043), and total strength scores (p = .031) based on school district size, such that small districts had stronger, more comprehensive wellness policies than large districts. Section comparisons revealed the section focused on Standards for United States Department of Agriculture School Meals was primarily responsible for these differences.". Read more >>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) In our quest to influence behaviour through multiple interventions in the school setting and to overcome the systemic, complex barriers to maintaining such multi-component programs, we sometimes forget that simple activities can also help students. A small scale study from the United Arab Emirates, published in Issue #6, 2015 of the British Journal of School Nursing, reminds us of this fact, as the authors report on the impact of a large group educational activity for 150 students delivered by the school nurse. "A quasi-experimental control group, and post-test only design was used. A school-based healthy nutrition educational programme was implemented to improve the nutritional knowledge of adolescents, and to promote a healthy life style among them. The ‘Let's Eat Healthy’ programme was delivered to 150 students in the intervention group, who were compared to another 150 students in the control group where the programme was not delivered. Students that participated in the intervention group were significantly more knowledgeable about healthy nutrition compared to students that didn't participate (P<0.01). They also scored significantly higher in the dietary behaviours survey, which reflects the adoption of more healthy eating behaviours. Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
A locally developed instructional program that was started by a teacher, helped by crowd-sourced funding and then evaluated by the Johnson Foundation and North Carolina has reported reductions in BMI after one year in a small scale quasi-experimental study published in the October 2015 issue of the Journal of School Health. "Motivating Adolescents with Technology to CHOOSE Health™ (MATCH) is an educational and behavioral intervention in seventh grade. Teachers in 2 schools delivered the MATCH curriculum, with 1 control school. Using a quasi-experimental design, outcome measures included lessons completed, body mass index (BMI), BMI z-score (zBMI), BMI percentile, weight category, and self-reported lifestyle behaviors. We used multiple regression models to compare group results. For the MATCH group (N = 189), teachers provided lessons over 14 weeks; the control group (N = 173) received usual curriculum. Post-intervention, the MATCH group had significant decreases in BMI measures compared with the control. In combined overweight and obese participants, the mean (95% confidence interval) zBMI change was −0.05 (−0.07, −0.03) in MATCH and −0.01 (−0.04, 0.02) in control, p = .034 between groups. After 1 year, improvements are sustained: for the overweight subgroup, the mean zBMI decreased from 1.34 to 1.26 post-MATCH, then to 1.26 after 1 year; for the obese subgroup, mean zBMI = 2.16, to 2.13 post-MATCH to 2.08 after 1 year. Self-reported lifestyle behaviors showed no differences." Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Readers of this blog will know that we have been tracking the relationship (or lack thereof) between physical activity and overweight/obesity. Two Articles in July 2015 Issue of International Journal of Obesity continue the discussion. One article suggests that self-reporting of eating and activity behaviours are not sufficiently accurate and objective measurement is required. Another article reports on a study that "identified an unhealthy cluster of TV viewing with ED food/drink consumption, which predicted overweight/obesity in a small longitudinal sample of Australian children. Cluster stability was fair to moderate over 3 years and is a novel finding. A third behaviour examined in the study, physical activity was apparently not as significant as the eating/TV watching behaviours. This finding continues our growing realization that eating and activity may be independent factors/behaviours rather than linked and that it may be wiser to focus on eating, especially when combined with television viewing. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #6, 2015 of Journal of Health Psychology reports on a small study of tThe impact of a school-based gardening intervention on intentions and behaviour related to fruit and vegetable consumption in children. The results of this singke school study are positive but the explanation of the result is equally interesting. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used to explain the results. "Measures of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and fruit and vegetable consumption were taken pre- and post-intervention. Repeated measures analysis of variance and hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the intervention group increased daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and increased intentions, attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioural control related to fruit and vegetable consumption. Attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control significantly predicted changes in fruit and vegetable consumption." It is this combination knowledge, practical experience, changes in attitudes, intentions, percveptions of control/health beliefs and the other aspects listed in the article that we need to consider more often. Read more>>
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