Using food experience, multimedia and role models for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in Bangkok kindergarten children

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the use of food experience, multimedia and role models for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in kindergarten children. Methods: A quasi‐experimental study was conducted. A Bangkok public primary school was randomly selected and one of the kindergarten levels was purposively chosen. Program implementation consisted of 11 activities over an eight‐week period from July to September, 2003. Data on demographic variables, and types and amounts of fruit and vegetables consumed and frequency of fruit and vegetables served were collected before and after the intervention. Program evaluation consisted of an analysis of the pre‐ and post‐test data. Results: After the intervention, fruit and vegetable eating behaviour scores (median ± interquartile range) revealed significant changes from 3 ± 8 to 7 ± 8 for vegetables and 6 ± 8 to 9 ± 8 for fruit (P‐value < 0.001); the different types of consumed vegetables were increased from two to four (P‐value ≤ 0.001); and the fruit and vegetable intake was significantly increased from 53 g to 77 g and from 11 g to 23 g respectively (P‐value < 0.005). Conclusions: Results of this pilot study were effective in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in the kindergarten, however, longer‐term evaluation and assessment of the impact on the home environment are required. The inclusion of nutrition education and instruction on healthy eating habits in the course curriculum combined with social support from teachers and families may improve and sustain fruit and vegetable eating behaviours.

Family and community factors shaping the eating behaviour of preschool-aged children in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review of interventions

“…A summary of the characteristics of the eligible studies is presented in Table 3. The fourteen papers comprising 13 interventions, included RCTs (n = 6 papers) (da Costa Louzada et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2009;Kusuma et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2016;Ramírez-Silva et al, 2013;Vitolo et al, 2010), NRCTs (n = 5 papers) (Knueppel et al, 2010;Low et al, 2007;Mascie-Taylor et al, 2010;Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Olney et al, 2009), and pre-post studies (n = 3 papers) (Darrouzet-Nardi et al, 2016;Noradilah and Zahara, 2012;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010).…”

“…The majority of studies were conducted in Asian countries (n = 9 papers) (Darrouzet-Nardi et al, 2016;Hu et al, 2009;Kusuma et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2016;Mascie-Taylor et al, 2010;Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Noradilah and Zahara, 2012;Olney et al, 2009;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010). Studies predominantly targeted children's healthy food consumption (n = 11 papers) (da Costa Louzada et al, 2012;Darrouzet-Nardi et al, 2016;Hu et al, 2009;Knueppel et al, 2010;Kusuma et al, 2017;Low et al, 2007;Mascie-Taylor et al, 2010;Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Noradilah and Zahara, 2012;Olney et al, 2009;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010). Eating behaviour outcomes were assessed through parent/ caregiver report in all studies and an additional researcher report (spot checking) was conducted in two studies (Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Noradilah and Zahara, 2012).…”

“…Eating behaviour outcomes were assessed through parent/ caregiver report in all studies and an additional researcher report (spot checking) was conducted in two studies (Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Noradilah and Zahara, 2012). Questionnaires were the most frequently used measure (n = 7 papers) (Hu et al, 2009;Kusuma et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2016;Mascie-Taylor et al, 2010;Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994;Olney et al, 2009;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010) followed by single 24-hr recall (n = 2 papers) (Darrouzet-Nardi et al, 2016;Ramírez-Silva et al, 2013), multiple 24-hr recalls (n = 2 papers) (da Costa Louzada et al, 2012;Vitolo et al, 2010), FFQ (n = 1 paper) (Knueppel et al, 2010), FFQ and a 24-hr recall (n = 1 paper) (Low et al, 2007) and researcher recorded food record (n = 1 paper) (Noradilah and Zahara, 2012) . The study sample size ranged from 26 to 2876 children, with an age of birth to 8 years.…”

“…The study sample size ranged from 26 to 2876 children, with an age of birth to 8 years. Only two studies reported the validity elsewhere (Lin et al, 2016;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010) and one study reported reliability of dietary intake measurements (Lin et al, 2016).…”

“…The duration of intervention exposure was not adequate to obtain an outcome in one intervention (Mujibur Rahman et al, 1994). In category two, evaluating the impact of food experience and role modeling was the aim of two studies, both pre-post studies (Noradilah and Zahara, 2012;Sirikulchayanonta et al, 2010). One of these studies assessed the impact of repeated exposure over a 3-day period to a test food, which was not preferred by children (Noradilah and Zahara, 2012).…”