Dietary Habits
Conditions
Keywords
children, fruit, vegetable, diet, school, garden
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to determine whether school gardens influence children's dietary intake, nutritional knowledge, and other outcomes.
Detailed description
Schools in New York, Washington State, Iowa, and Arkansas were randomly assigned to receive school gardens and associated curriculum or to serve on the wait list control group that received gardens and curriculum at the end of the 2-year study. Baseline data were collected in Fall 2011. Garden interventions began in Spring 2012. Follow-up data were collected at 6, 12, 18 months following baseline data collection.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALgarden intervention
The intervention includes raised bed garden kits for participating classes as well as access to garden-based curriculum.
Sponsors
Washington State University
University of Arkansas
Iowa State University
Cornell University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Years to 14 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Schools had at least 50% of enrolled children qualifying for free + reduced price meals (FRPM) * Schools did not already have a school garden.
Exclusion criteria
none.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| change in fruit + vegetable intake at school | change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months | Children's lunch trays are photographed before and after lunch for 3 days at each wave of data collection. Digital Food Image Analysis software computes grams of fruit and grams of vegetables consumed for each pair of lunch tray photos. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Garden Intervention Fidelity | At 3 garden intervention time points -- 6, 12, 18 months after baseline | fruit + vegetables planted, harvested; methods of fruit and vegetable distribution; and garden-based lessons delivered to the class are measures at each wave of data collection from Fall 2011 to Spring 2013. |
| change fruit & vegetable consumption at home | change from baseline (Fall 2011) to follow-up at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months. | — |
| change in Nutritional Knowledge | change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months | In the classroom, children complete a 7-item multiple choice questionnaire developed by the Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth curriculum development team. The questionnaire includes items about plant science (e.g., Which part of the plant uses the sun's energy to make food? root, stem, leaf, flower) and nutrition (e.g., Which nutrient supplies our bodies with energy? fiber, carbohydrates, water, vitamins). Data represent the number of correct answers. |
| change in Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) self efficacy | change from baseline (Fall 2011) to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months. | In the classroom, children complete a 15-item questionnaire, derived from the Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI) (Arnold & Bourdeau, 2009) and the Iowa 4-H Science Youth Self-Assessment (Staker, 2011). Items include, for example: I can do an experiment to answer a question and I can develop a plan for a good garden I want to plant with response options Disagree. Not Sure. or Agree denoted 1, 2, or 3 respectively. The STEM self-efficacy score range is thus 15-45, with higher scores indicating that participant has stronger positive beliefs in their abilities to use STEM to solve problems. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed