Reduction of food-related fears and promotion of healthy dietary habits in children

• Register: ISRCTN
• Last refreshed on: 5 January 2021
• Main ID: ISRCTN74823448
• Date of registration: 29/01/2015
• Prospective Registration: No
• Primary sponsor: University of Agder
• Public title: Reduction of food-related fears and promotion of healthy dietary habits in children
• Scientific title: Food courage to reduce food neophobia and promote healthy dietary habits among preschool children to prevent future overweight and obesity: a cluster randomised study
• Date of first enrolment: 01/12/2014
• Target sample size: 40
• Recruitment status: Completed
• URL: http://isrctn.com/ISRCTN74823448
• Study type: Interventional
• Study design: Single-centre interventional trial (Prevention)
• Phase: Not Applicable

Countries of recruitment

Norway

Contacts

• Name: Nina Cecilie Øverby

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria:
1. Born in 2012
2. Attending the selected kindergartens in Agder, Norway

Exclusion criteria: Parents do not understand the Norwegian language

Age minimum:
Age maximum:
Gender: Both

Health Condition(s) or Problem(s) studied

Dietary habits, food neophobia, parental and kindergarten feeding practices and child obesity
Nutritional, Metabolic, Endocrine
Food neophobia

Intervention(s)

1. The intervention is primarily aimed at the children and the kindergarten personnel; some parts of the intervention are also aimed at the parents
2. The intervention will be for 9 weeks and a pause for 3 weeks
3. Kindergarten personnel will attend one or two classes to learn about the elements in the intervention; the pedagogical leader will attend two classes
4. There are three main elements in the intervention in the kindergartens
4.1. Kindergarten personnel will use a pedagogical method (Sapere) to talk about food and tasting with children; there will be detailed descriptions about how this session should be done on the different days during the intervention weeks
4.2. The kindergarten will prepare and serve hot lunch from a menu corresponding to the different tastes talked about in the pedagogical sessions for 3 days during the intervention weeks
4.3. Kindergarten personnel will integrate ten meal principles regarding responsive feeding in the meal setting; the parents will be given short postcard messages corresponding to the ten meal principles in the kindergarten
5. There will also be a dialogue with the parents regarding what the children have done during the week in this project (posters with pictures of activities)
6. The control group will continue with their usual pedagogical sessions, meals and food serving and the parents will not receive any information

Primary Outcome(s)

1. Food neophobia: measured with the Food Neophobia Scale (relevant items) and test of willingness to try known and unknown foods (P Pliner. Development of measures of food neophobia in children. Appetite 1994; 23: 147–63.) at at baseline, 4 months and 10 months after baseline, and when the child is 4 years old
2. Parental and kindergarten personnel feeding practices: measured with the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (Musher-Eizenman D, Holub S. Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire: validation of a new measure of parental feeding practices. J Pediatr Psychol 2007; 32: 960–72.); parental feeding practices measured at baseline, 4 months and 10 months after baseline, and when the child is 4 years old and kindergarten personnel feeding practices measured at baseline and 4 months and 10 months after baseline

Secondary Outcome(s)

1. Weight, measured with a digital scale (Seca 877) at baseline, 4 months and 10 months after baseline, and when the child is 4 years old
2. Height, measured with a portable stadiometer (Seca 217) at baseline, 4 months and 10 months after baseline, and when the child is 4 years old
3. Body-mass index for children (iso-BMI): calculated according to the Extended International (IOTF) Body Mass Index Cut-Offs for Thinness, Overweight and Obesity in Children (http://www.worldobesity.org/aboutobesity/child-obesity/newchildcutoffs/) at baseline and 4 months, 10 months after baseline and when the child is 4 years old
4. Selected dietary habits (selected food items in a food frequency questionnaire), assessed at baseline, 4 months and 10 months after baseline, and when the child is 4 years old

Secondary ID(s)

N/A

Source(s) of Monetary Support

Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (UK), University of Agder

Ethics review

Status:
Approval date:
Contact:

Data Protection Official for Research, 26/03/2014, reference 37459

Results

• Results available: Yes
• Date Completed: 01/12/2020