The 10-month intervention in preschools produced significant changes in children's food intake, movement skills and indicators of weight status.

The TFV program was a one-year intervention conducted during 2006 and 2007 in 18 preschools (matched with 13 control preschools). The study had a quasi-experimental design with pre- and postintervention evaluation of nutrition and physical activity variables as well as anthropometric measures. Details of the program's methodological aspects such as the recruitment process, intervention strategies and evaluation instruments are described.

There is a need for large, well designed, multisite, experimental studies to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions that promote coping and resilience in adult palliative care or oncology nurses.

BackgroundMovement skill competence (e.g. the ability to throw, run and kick) is a potentially important physical activity determinant. However, little is known about the long-term impact of interventions to improve movement skills in early childhood. This study aimed to determine whether intervention preschool children were still more skill proficient than controls three years after a 10 month movement skill focused intervention: ‘Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools’.MethodsChildren from 18 intervention and 13 control preschools in NSW, Australia were assessed at ages four (Time1), five (T2) and eight years (T3) for locomotor (run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, slide) and object control proficiency (strike, bounce, catch, kick, overhand throw, underhand roll) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Multi-level object control and locomotor regression models were fitted with variables time, intervention (yes/no) and a time*intervention interaction. Both models added sex of child and retained if significant, in which case interactions of sex of child with other variables were modelled and retained. SPSS (Version 17.0) was used.ResultsOverall follow-up rate was 29% (163/560). Of the 137 students used in the regression models, 53% were female (n = 73). Intervention girls maintained their object control skill advantage in comparison to controls at T3 (p = .002), but intervention boys did not (p = .591). At T3, there were no longer intervention/control differences in locomotor skill (p = .801).ConclusionEarly childhood settings should implement movement skill interventions and more intensively target girls and object control skills.

Objectives: The Tooty Fruity Vegie (TFV) project is a multi-strategic, school-based intervention, aimed at preventing the substantial decline in fruit and vegetable intake that typically starts during primary school. This paper reports project implementation and its impact on a range of knowledge, attitudinal and behavioural indicators amongst the children, their parents and teachers.Methods: During 1999 and 2000, TFV was implemented in 10 volunteer primary schools across the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Surveys were conducted, in late 2000, with children, parents, teachers and principals across nine intervention and three matched control schools.Intervention schools' management teams also completed Strategy Implementation Indexes indicating how often, how well and with how many people each major strategy was implemented.Results: Completed surveys from 613 parents (59%), 392 older children (65%), 50 teachers (81%) and all 10 intervention principals and school management teams showed the project was well implemented, achieved high reach and was very positively received. The project enhanced the quality, diversity and frequency of classroom fruit and vegetable promoting activities, substantially increasing children's involvement and enjoyment levels. It significantly improved children's fruit and vegetable knowledge, attitudes, access and preparation skills; parents' knowledge and involvement in fruit and vegetable promoting activities in schools and beyond; and teachers' perceived support for doing school-based fruit and vegetable promotions.Conclusion: Despite some methodological limitations, which may limit confidence in our findings, survey results across all target groups consistently indicated that primary schools can be supported to establish, implement and sustain highly acceptable and effective fruit and vegetable promoting programs.Implications: TFV is a resource-efficient investment for health services to improve children's access to, and motivation to eat more, fruits and vegetables, with long-term implications for many major diseases.