Abstract
ObjectiveSchool food intake makes a considerable contribution to children's overall diet, especially fruit and vegetable intake. Comparing differing school food provision systems can provide novel insights for intervention and improved nutrition policy. This study compared school day food in children from Australia and England.DesignChildren completed food frequency questionnaires reporting school day food intake, breakfast intake and family evening meals. Differences in food consumed over the school day between Australian and English children were evaluated. Multinomial logistic regressions compared fruit and vegetable intake, family dinner frequency and breakfast in Australian and English children adjusting for confounders: age, sex, ethnicity and parent education.Setting27 Primary schools in Adelaide, Australia and 32 in London, England.SubjectsN = 772 children aged 8–11 years from the Australian REACH study (n = 347) and UK RHS School Gardening Trial in England (n = 425).ResultsConsiderably more English children reported consuming vegetables at school than Australian children (recess/lunchtime Australian children 3.4%/6.1%; English children recess/lunctime 3.6/51.1%). However, Australian children were more likely to consume vegetables daily (OR = 4.1; 1.3, 12.5), and have family evening meals everyday [OR = 4.01; 1.88, 8.55], and were less likely to consume breakfast (OR = 0.26; 0.08, 0.79) than English children.ConclusionsFindings indicate that provision of a school lunch meal, compared to a packed lunch from home, may be more supportive of children's vegetable intake. However, without a supportive home environment that encourages vegetable intake, children will not be able to consume sufficient amounts of vegetables.
Highlights
The impact of poor nutrition in children is causing public health concerns around the world, and contributing to rising childhood obesity [1,2]
Due to the nature of food provision, there was a large variation in the percentages consuming packed lunch (Australia 90%, English 33%) and school meals(Australia 10%, English 67%)
Evening meal consumption everyday was more frequent in Australia (68% compared to 34%), with a higher percentage of English children having a family evening meal less than once a week (30% compared to 9%)
Summary
The impact of poor nutrition in children is causing public health concerns around the world, and contributing to rising childhood obesity [1,2]. This review highlighted considerable differences in school nutrition policies between Australian and England, noting potential nutritional advantages of school meal provision for improving diet quality in children. Understanding of the potential impact of school nutrition policies for improving nutritional intake is limited by a lack of monitoring and evaluation of policy compliance and dietary intake. Another important finding was whilst during school hours children’s food consumption is restricted to meet nutrition standards it is the home food environment that can have a lasting impact on overall diet quality [7]
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