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. 2019 Sep;22(13):2489-2499.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980019001368. Epub 2019 Jun 17.

Project Spraoi: a two-year longitudinal study on the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and physical activity intervention on dietary intake, nutritional knowledge and markers of health of Irish schoolchildren

Alison Merrotsy  1 , Aoife L McCarthy  2 , Jennifer Flack  1 , Sean Lacey  3 , Tara Coppinger  1
Affiliations

Project Spraoi: a two-year longitudinal study on the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and physical activity intervention on dietary intake, nutritional knowledge and markers of health of Irish schoolchildren

Alison Merrotsy et al. Public Health Nutr. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a nutrition and physical activity (PA) intervention on dietary intake (DI), nutritional knowledge (NK), blood pressure (BP), anthropometric measures and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of schoolchildren.

Design: Longitudinal study. DI, NK, BMI, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), BP and CRF were all measured/calculated prior to (October 2014) and at the end of (June 2016) intervention delivery.

Setting: Two primary schools (one intervention and one control), Cork, Ireland.

Participants: Six-year-olds (n 49; mean age = 6·09 (sd 0·33) years) and 10-year-olds (n 52; mean age = 9·90 (sd 0·37) years).

Results: There was a large and a moderate statistically significant difference between the change in systolic (P = 0·005, effect size (ES) = 0·165) and diastolic BP (P = 0·023, ES = 0·116), respectively, for 10-year-olds in the intervention and control groups. There was also a large statistically significant difference between the change in WHtR (P = 0·0005, ES = 0·386) and a moderate statistically significant difference between the change in NK (P = 0·027, ES = 0·107) for 10-year-olds in the intervention and control groups. There was a large statistically significant difference between the change in percentage of energy from protein in 10-year-old females (P = 0·021, ES = 0·276) in the intervention and control groups.

Conclusions: Project Spraoi is Ireland's first ever school-based intervention that has been evaluated and proven effective in improving DI, NK, WHtR and BP in older primary-school children in one intervention school.

Keywords: Children; Nutrition and physical activity intervention; Obesity prevention.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Statistically significant effects of the Project Spraoi two-year nutrition and physical activity intervention for Irish schoolchildren: (a) fibre intake, 6-year-old males; (b) systolic blood pressure, 10-year-olds; (c) diastolic blood pressure, 10-year-olds; (d) waist-to-height ratio, 10-year-olds; (e) nutritional knowledge, 10-year-olds; (f) protein intake as a percentage of energy, 10-year-old females. formula image, intervention group; formula image, control group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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