Participation of 1,725 fourth‐grade children in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP): Comparing study records to parental responses on consent forms

Abstract

On study records created for a validation study of dietary recall accuracy, research staff indicated which children participated (obtained meals) in SBP and NSLP on 10 to 29 random days per fourth‐grade child between August and May. For analyses, we used a cutpoint of whether children participated on ≥50% of days. Parents responded to 2 questions on consent forms regarding children's usual participation in school meals (breakfast; lunch). For the 1,126 children who participated in SBP on ≥50% of days, 66% of consent forms indicated that breakfast was usually eaten at school, 27% at school and home, 5% at home, 1% not eaten, and 1% indicated a combination of responses; for the 599 children who participated in SBP on <50% of days, consent forms indicated 23%, 27%, 42%, 4%, and 4%, respectively. For the 1,672 children who participated in NSLP on ≥50% of days, 91% of consent forms indicated that lunch was usually from school, 2% brought from home, 5% from school and brought from home, and 2% not eaten or a combination of responses; for the 53 children who participated in NSLP on <50% of days, consent forms indicated 28%, 62%, 10%, and 0%, respectively. In summary, parental responses of children's participation had acceptable accuracy for NSLP, but not for SBP. Funded by R21HL088617 and R01HL074358.