A province-wide school nutrition policy and food consumption in elementary school children in Prince Edward Island.

Abstract

Although the majority of Canadian provinces have indicated that they have adopted new school nutrition policies, there have been few if any systematic evaluations of these policies. In Prince Edward Island, a nutrition policy for elementary schools was adopted province-wide in 2006. In the present study, we assessed the nutritional benefits of the new policy by examining changes in student food consumption prior to and one year following implementation of the policy. We surveyed fifth and sixth grade children from 11 elementary schools in Prince Edward Island in 2001/02 (pre-policy implementation) and fifth and sixth grade children from the same 11 schools in 2007 (post-policy implementation). Food consumption was assessed using a self-administered validated food frequency questionnaire. We applied multilevel logistic regression to compare pre-/post-policy implementation differences in the proportion of students meeting Canada's Food Guide recommendations for vegetables and fruit (VF) and milk and alternatives (MA) and in the proportion of students consuming < 3 servings of low nutrient dense foods (LNDF) daily. Relative to students in 2001/02, students surveyed in 2007 were 2.14 (95% CI 1.62-2.82) times more likely to report consuming less than three daily servings of LNDF and were more likely to meet recommendations for VF (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.00-2.07) and MA (OR 1.27, 95% CI 0.98-1.64). The present study is the first in Canada to show favourable changes in student food consumption that parallel the introduction of a school nutrition policy.