UNTITLED FITNESS AND NUTRITION INTERVENTION

OVERVIEW

This fitness and nutrition intervention is a school-based program geared at preventing obesity risk factors in children and adolescents. The program consists of school-based and home-based nutrition components as well as a fitness education portion. In an evaluation of the program, researchers tested the effects of various combinations of these three program components relative to a no-treatment control condition. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the six following conditions: 1) fitness education; 2) fitness education and school nutrition; 3) school nutrition; 4) school nutrition and home nutrition; 5) home nutrition; and 6) no-treatment control. Results generally indicated that children receiving some combination of the nutrition interventions experienced improvements on some indicators of diet relative to controls, but there were no significant differences across groups on other indicators of nutrition. Additionally, children receiving the fitness education experienced the greatest improvements in physical activity relative to control participants. Girls in the two fitness groups experienced significantly greater decreases in blood pressure relative to controls. Finally, participants in the fitness + school nutrition group were the only to experience changes in body composition relative to controls.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: 10 to 12 year old children and adolescents.

This fitness and nutrition intervention is a school-based obesity prevention program consisting of three components that can be implemented in combination or separately from one another.

Two of the three components focus on nutrition and were specifically designed to increase fruit, vegetable, whole grain, and cereal consumption and to decrease fat, sugar, and salt consumption. The school-based nutrition component consists of 10, 60-minute lessons geared at improving food-based knowledge and attitudes, as well as eating habits.

The home-based nutrition component is delivered through educational comics provided by the children's schools and requires participants to complete homework assignments. Parents are also provided with materials to assist their children in completing homework assignments, preparing healthy meals, and other activities.

The fitness education component replaces children's regular physical education classes and includes six, 30-minute classroom sessions geared at providing a rationale for subsequent activity sessions and for exercise in general. Throughout the remainder of the intervention, children were able to choose from a variety of physical activities. The intensity and duration of these activity options were increased throughout the school year. The fitness activities are carried out in 15-minute sessions each school day.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Vandongen, R., Jenner, D.A., Thompson, C., Taggart, A.C., Spickett, E.E., Burke, V., Beilin, L.J., Milligan, R.A., & Dunbar, D.L. (1995). A controlled evaluation of a fitness and nutrition intervention program on cardiovascular health in 10- to 12-year-old children. Preventive Medicine, 24, 9-22.

Evaluated population: 1,147 boys and girls attending 30 schools in Australia served as the sample for this evaluation.

Approach: Researchers tested the effects of various combinations of the three program components relative to a no-treatment control condition. At the beginning of the school year, each of the 30 participating schools was randomly assigned to have its students participate in one of the following six study conditions: 1) fitness education, 2) fitness education + school nutrition, 3) school nutrition, 4) school nutrition + home nutrition, 5) home nutrition, and 6) no-treatment control. The study was conducted over the course of one school year, beginning in February and ending in December. All participants were measured at baseline and at the conclusion of the intervention on the following measures: Dietary intake, physical fitness, body composition, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

Results: The results summary is organized by outcome type.

Dietary intake:

All participants in the school + home nutrition group reported significantly greater improvements in fiber intake relative to controls.

Boys in both fitness groups and in the school + home nutrition group reported significant improvements in sugar intake relative to boys in the control group.

Boys in the fitness + school nutrition, school nutrition only, and school + home nutrition groups reported significantly greater increases in protein intake from baseline relative to controls

Boys in the school nutrition group reported significant improvements in salt intake relative to controls

Girls in the home nutrition only group reported significant improvements in level of fat intake post-intervention relative to control group girls.

Girls in the school + home nutrition and the home nutrition only groups reported significantly greater decreases in saturated fat intake from baseline relative to control girls.

Girls in the fitness group reported significantly greater improvements in fiber intake relative to controls.

There were no significant differences on reported fat or saturated fat intake for intervention boys relative to controls.

There were no differences for girls across study groups on reports of sugar intake.

There were no differences for girls across groups on protein intake.

Girls in both fitness groups and the school nutrition group reported an increase in salt relative to controls.

Physical fitness:

All participants in the fitness groups showed a significant increase in endurance fitness relative to control participants.

Girls in the school + home nutrition group also exhibited significant increases in endurance relative to control girls.

There were no other statistically significant differences across groups.

Body composition, blood pressure, and cholesterol:

Participants in the fitness + school nutrition group experienced significant decreases in tricep skinfold thickness relative to controls.

There was a significant decrease in blood pressure relative to control participants for girls in the two fitness group.

There were no significant differences across groups on change in subscapular skinfold thickness, body fat percentage, cholesterol, or BMI relative to controls.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 10 to 12 years old

Evaluated participant grades: N/A

Program age ranges in the guide: Middle Childhood, Adolescence

Program components: School-Based, Parent or Family Component

Measured outcomes: Physical Health

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, Co-Ed, School-Based, Skills Training, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Weight

Program information last updated on 6/24/09.