Can a school-based intervention increase children's fruit and vegetable consumption in the home setting?

Abstract

Aims: Although previous research has shown the Food Dudes programme increases children's fruit and vegetable consumption at school, the evidence for the effectiveness in the home setting is more equivocal. The school environment is identified as a logical setting for targeting children's fruit and vegetable consumption; however, to produce sustainable changes in behaviour, it is equally important that interventions target consumption in the home setting. This study aimed to establish whether the Food Dudes intervention can influence home consumption of fruit and vegetables and the extent to which any changes in eating behaviour following the intervention were maintained in the long term.

Methods: A total of 34 children aged 4-11 years from eight primary schools (four intervention and four control groups) in the West Midlands, United Kingdom, completed a 7-day photographic food diary at baseline (prior to the intervention), a 3-month follow-up (post-intervention) and a 12-month follow-up.

Results: The Food Dudes programme did not influence either short- or long-term changes in children's consumption of fruit and vegetables at home during weekdays or at the weekend.

Conclusions: The Food Dudes programme had no effect on changing children's fruit and vegetable consumption in the home environment. Further development of the programme could consider how parental and home environmental factors may be combined with the principles of the Food Dudes programme to influence children's fruit and vegetable consumption in this setting.

Keywords: children; fruit; home environment; school-based intervention; vegetables.