The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Apr 7, 2008
A new study published in the April issue of Pediatrics suggests that a multifaceted, school-based nutrition and health intervention helped to reduce the prevalence of obesity and overweight among participating children, the Associated Press reports. As part of a two year study, schools that made comprehensive changes had half as many of their healthy weight students become overweight as schools that did not. Researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Pennsylvania enrolled 10 Philadelphia elementary schools in a government-funded program to test an intervention developed by The Food Trust, a local nonprofit organization. Participants included over 1,300 students in grades 4 through 6, roughly 40 percent of whom were overweight or obese at the start of the study. During the study, five intervention schools improved the nutritional quality of vending machine and cafeteria fare; replaced sodas with juice, water and low-fat milk; and required snacks to meet limits on fat, salt and sugar content. Intervention schools also gave students who ate healthy snacks raffle tickets for prizes such as bicycles and jump ropes, incorporated nutrition curricula into lesson plans, and encouraged children to exercise at activity stations during recess.