Effectiveness of Nutritional Strategies on Improving the Quality of Diet of Children from 6 to 12 Years Old: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Dietary habits, that are formed during childhood and consolidated in adulthood, are known to influence the development of future chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes. The aim of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional interventions carried out in recent years focused on improving the quality of the diet of the child population. A systematic search of the PubMed and Scopus databases was performed from January 2011 until September 2021. A total of 910 articles were identified and screened based on their title, abstract and full text. Finally, 12 articles were included in the current systematic review. Of those, in six studies the intervention was based on the provision of healthy meals and in the other six studies the intervention focused on modifying the school environment. Six of the studies selected included other components in their intervention such as nutritional education sessions, physical activity and/or families. A wide variety of methods were used for diet assessments, from direct method to questionnaires. The results suggest that interventions that modify the school environment or provide different meals or snacks may be effective in improving children’s dietary patterns, both in the short and long term. Further research is necessary to evaluate the real effectiveness of strategies with multidisciplinary approach (nutritional sessions, physical activity and family’s involvement).

The impact of a family web-based nutrition intervention to increase fruit, vegetable, and dairy intakes: a single-blinded randomized family clustered intervention

“…Overall diet quality is not often assessed in family web-based interventions [10] which makes it difficult to compare these results with other studies. A recent review focussing on effectiveness of nutritional strategies on improving diet quality in children (which only include three studies with parents out of twelve), found that most studies assessed diet quality or dietary patterns mainly by focussing on an increase consumption of foods considered as healthy (fruits and vegetables) and a decrease in those less healthy (sugary drinks, less healthy snacks) [43]. In our study, overall diet quality was assessed using the NRF9.3, which has been validated with the Healthy Eating Index [32,33].…”

An Intervention in Children Between 6 and 12 Years-Old Is Effective on Improving Diet Quality. The Alinfa Study

“…Given the changes in food consumption, the improvement in dietary pro le is not surprising [40][41][42], however, it is not very often reported. A recently published review showed that only a 33% of the interventional studies focused on improving children's diet quality reported the nutrient distribution of participant's diet [43].…”

Infancy Dietary Patterns, Development, and Health: An Extensive Narrative Review

“…In addition, it should be noted that when programs not only focus on improving a specific healthy habit, but rather on the development of nutritional strategies focused on the acquisition of a healthy lifestyle as a whole, which includes physical activity, they are more effective; both China and the Netherlands were able to carry out this type of program [ 223 , 224 ]. The duration of the intervention period varied depending on the study; however, the most successful programs had a duration equal to or greater than one academic year [ 225 ].…”