Time Constraints During School Meals
Conditions
Brief summary
Recent peer-reviewed observational evidence suggests that school children receive anywhere from 10-33 minutes of seated lunch time and that students with less time to eat discard higher amounts of milk, entrée (i.e. protein items), grains, and vegetables. This waste is a missed nutritional and food security opportunity and also negatively impacts the environment. The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact that lunch time constraints have on child food selection, consumption and waste behaviors using a crossover trial design, where the duration of seated lunch times are randomly allocated to be either 10 minutes or 20 minutes each day.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALLunch period length
We are randomly allocating a 10 minute or 20 period of seated lunch time.
Sponsors
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
7 Years to 14 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Must be enrolled in local summer camp
Exclusion criteria
* None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Food item selection | Ranges from 5 days to 20 days, depending upon how long each participant elects to enroll in the summer camp | The type and number of school meal components selected by students to eat for lunch. |
| Food item consumption | Ranges from 5 days to 20 days, depending upon how long each participant elects to enroll in the summer camp | The weight of each school meal component that was consumed by each child during lunch. Each measured in grams. |
| Food item waste | Ranges from 5 days to 20 days, depending upon how long each participant elects to enroll in the summer camp | The weight of each school meal component that was discarded by each child during lunch. Each measured in grams. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed