Intervention effects of a school-based health promotion programme on children's nutrition behaviour

Aim The programme "Join the Healthy Boat" promotes amongst other things a healthy diet in primary school children. In order to evaluate the programme's effectiveness, this study longitudinally investigated children's nutrition behaviour. Subject and methods A total of 1564 children (7.1 +/- 0.6 years) participated in a cluster-randomised study. Teachers delivered lessons including behavioural contracting and budgeting. Nutritional behaviours of parents and child were assessed via parental report. Anthropometrics were measured on site. Results After one year, children in the intervention group (IG) showed a significant reduction in the consumption of pure juices (p <= 0.001). Soft drink consumption reduced in both groups, although with a trend towards a slightly greater reduction in the IG. Children with fathers of normal weight as well as first graders showed a significant reduction of soft drink consumption in the IG (p = 0.025 and p = 0.022 respectively). Fruit and vegetable intake increased significantly for first graders (p = 0.050), children from families with a high parental education level (p = 0.023), and for children with an overweight father (p = 0.034). Significant group differences were found for fruit and vegetable intake of children with migration background (p = 0.01) and children of parents with a high school degree could be observed (p = 0.019). Conclusion This shows that the programme appeals to a wider range of children, and is therefore more likely to compensate for differences due to origin or other social inequalities, which also shows that active parental involvement is vital for successful interventions.