Moving from policy to practice: A randomised trial of an implementation intervention to facilitate the adoption of a statewide healthy canteen policy in government primary schools.

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The adoption of healthy school canteen policies has been recommended as a strategy to prevent excessive weight gain. A number of jurisdictions in Australia and internationally have policies requiring school adoption of healthy canteen strategies. Despite this, internationally, schools have failed to adopt healthy canteen practices consistent with such policies. If the benefits of obesity prevention initiatives are to be realised, policies recommended to prevent overweight must be implemented. However, research measuring the effectiveness of interventions to facilitate widespread implementation of health promoting policies and practices in schools is limited. The aim of the research is to assess the effectiveness of a population wide implementation intervention in increasing canteen practices consistent with the mandatory NSW government healthy canteen policy (‘Fresh Tastes @ School’). The study will employ a randomised trial design. Seventy primary schools will be randomised to receive a 12 month intervention, or a no intervention comparison group. The effectiveness of the intervention will be determined by comparing post intervention differences between canteen menus audited by Dietitians in: i) the proportion of schools with a canteen menu containing foods or beverages restricted (‘red’ items) under the policy and; ii) the proportion of schools where healthy canteen items (‘green’) represent the majority (>50%) of products listed on the menu as recommended by the policy. The proposed research will be the first RCT of its kind, addresses a questions of particular policy relevance and will make an important contribution to reducing the burden of obesity.