Vegetable/Fruit Intakes of Young Children at Home and in Childcare Centres.

Purpose: The vegetable/fruit intakes of a sample of children attending regulated childcare in Nova Scotia was assessed and compared by age groups (3 and 4-5 year olds) and by home and childcare environments. Methods: Seventy-nine children had 3-4-day food records and 58 had records from both environments. The data were coded by the 2007 Canada's Food Guide (CFG) recommendations and the 2014 Classification of Foods in the Canadian Nutrient File according to CFG (CNF/CFG) Tiers. Descriptive statistics and tests of significance were determined. Results: Overall, 56% of children met the CFG vegetable/fruit recommendations but the percentage of older children meeting recommendations was half that of the younger age group; a significant difference. Fruit and juice comprised 65% of vegetable/fruit intakes with more consumed at home. Vegetable/fruit items were mostly from the higher quality CNF/CFG Tiers but more of the lower quality items were consumed at home. Conclusions: The 4-5 year olds may not be increasing their vegetable/fruit intakes as the CFG recommends. While just over half of children met CFG vegetable/fruit recommendations, the vegetable/fruit items were mostly high quality; fruit and juice predominated. Identification of strategies to support increased vegetable/fruit intakes of children in both home and childcare environments is warranted.

Interventions to Support System-level Implementation of Health Promoting Schools: A Scoping Review.

Health promoting schools (HPS) is recognized globally as a multifaceted approach that can support health behaviours. There is increasing clarity around factors that influence HPS at a school level but limited synthesized knowledge on the broader system-level elements that may impact local implementation barriers and support uptake of a HPS approach. This study comprised a scoping review to identify, summarise and disseminate the range of research to support the uptake of a HPS approach across school systems. Two reviewers screened and extracted data according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Relevant studies were identified using a multi-phased approach including searching electronic bibliographic databases of peer reviewed literature, hand-searching reference lists and article recommendations from experts. In total, 41 articles met the inclusion criteria for the review, representing studies across nine international school systems. Overall, studies described policies that provided high-level direction and resources within school jurisdictions to support implementation of a HPS approach. Various multifaceted organizational and professional interventions were identified, including strategies to enable and restructure school environments through education, training, modelling and incentives. A systematic realist review of the literature may be warranted to identify the types of intervention that work best for whom, in what circumstance to create healthier schools and students.

Nutritional quality of children's school lunches: differences according to food source.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the nutritional quality of lunchtime food consumption among elementary-school children on Prince Edward Island according to the source of food consumed (home v. school). DESIGN: Students completed a lunchtime food record during an in-class survey. Dietary adequacy was assessed by comparing median micronutrient intakes with one-third of the Estimated Average Requirement; median macronutrient intakes were compared with the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to assess differences in nutrient intakes according to source of food consumed. SETTING: Elementary schools in Prince Edward Island, Canada. SUBJECTS: Grade 5 and 6 students (n 1980). RESULTS: Foods purchased at school were higher in nutrient density for ten micronutrients (Ca, Mg, K, Zn, vitamin A, vitamin D, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12) compared with packed lunch foods from home, which were higher in three micronutrients (Fe, vitamin C and folate). School lunches provided sufficient protein but were higher in sugar and fat than home lunches. Foods brought from home were higher in carbohydrates, fibre and Na than foods purchased at school. CONCLUSIONS: The overall nutritional quality of lunches was poor, regardless of source. A significant proportion of foods consumed by the students came from home sources; these were lower nutritional quality and were higher in Na than foods offered at school. Findings suggest that improving the dietary habits of school-aged children will require a collaborative effort from multiple stakeholders, including parents.

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

OBJECTIVE: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSION: 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.