Effectiveness of an intervention program to improve the nutritional quality of lunchboxes in elementary school children

• Register: ANZCTR
• Last refreshed on: 13 January 2020
• Main ID: ACTRN12614000620628
• Date of registration: 11/06/2014
• Prospective Registration: No
• Primary sponsor: Universidad Autonoma de Baja California
• Public title: Effectiveness of an intervention program to improve the nutritional quality of lunchboxes in elementary school children
• Scientific title: Comparison of an intervention program to improve the nutritional quality of home prepared lunchboxes in second and sixth grade elementary school children
• Date of first enrolment: 04/11/2013
• Target sample size: 900
• Recruitment status: Active, not recruiting
• URL: https://anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12614000620628.aspx
• Study type: Interventional
• Study design: Purpose: Educational / counselling / training; Allocation: Randomised controlled trial;
• Phase: Not Applicable

Countries of recruitment

Mexico

Contacts

• Name: Dr Arturo Jimenez Cruz

• Name: Miss Glenda Diaz Ramirez

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: second and sixth grade elementary school children
Exclusion criteria: children with mental or physical disabilities, metabolic problems or cancer

Age minimum: 7 Years
Age maximum: 13 Years
Gender: Both males and females

Health Condition(s) or Problem(s) studied

food and nutrient consumption ;
food and nutrient consumption

Diet and Nutrition - Other diet and nutrition disorders

Public Health - Health promotion/education

Intervention(s)

The intervention will be based on information about healthy food and nutrients that should be included in the lunchbox. This will be implemented during an eight week period.
At the beginning of the study the food and nutrient content of the lunchboxes will be assessed. Posters for children and parents with information to improve the content of school lunchbox will be displayed at the school and leaflets will be distributed to the parents and their children.
During the first week, the importance of drinking water will be emphasized; in the second week, it will be focused on the inclusion of fruits and vegetables, in the third week, how to prepare healthy foods will be showed, and in the fourth week, information about prepared dishes and unhealthy foods will be given.
The following four weeks letters with menus for breakfast, lunchbox contents and healthy food will be sent home.
After the eight weeks of intervention the food and nutrient content of the lunchboxes will be assessed.

Primary Outcome(s)

Reduce the number of unhealthy lunchboxes.
Unhealthy lunchboxes that does not meet the guidelines of school snack recommend the Health Secretary in Mexico.
Do not included; A) plain water, b) a portion of fruit or natural vegetable, c) prepared or commercial food containing approximately less than 250 kcal.
For the data analysis of the information will be used the programs Excel 2010 and SPSS version 19.0 for Windows.
Chi-square test will be used to see if there are differences between percentages of unhealthy and healthy Lunchbox, fruits, vegetables and unhealthy food, water between the control group and group intervention, pre-and post-intervention and by sex and age groups.[Eight weeks ]

Secondary Outcome(s)

Reduce the calorie content of lunchboxes
For the analysis of lunch box contents using a food program Nutritionist Pro v 5.2[Eight weeks]

Increase the number fruits and vegetables, and plain water
With a checklist will be registered the kind of food in the lunch box[Eight weeks]

Secondary ID(s)

none

Source(s) of Monetary Support

Universidad Autonoma de Baja California