SYNOPSISObjective. Northern Ireland has a high prevalence of childhood dental caries, reflecting heavy consumption of cariogenic snack foods. To develop a policy to promote and facilitate healthier eating, researchers, practitioners, and the school community formed a partnership, together creating the Boost Better Breaks (BBB) school-based policy. The policy was developed with and supported by dieticians, health promotion officers, teachers, school meal advisors, and local suppliers of school milk. Eighty percent of primary schools and preschool groups within the Southern Health and Social Services Board are involved in the program, which permits the consumption of only milk and fruit at break time.Methods. The authors assessed the effectiveness of the partnership using data from its first two years.Results. Results of the first two years of evaluation are positive. Initial findings indicate that the program had a positive effect in increasing the mean number of sound teeth in children attending schools in areas in which socioeconomic conditions are poor.Conclusion. This initiative suggests that collaboration can facilitate improvement in children's dental health and that careful targeting of the policy to schools in poor areas has the potential to narrow disparities.
Eating habits are changing, and snacking or "grazing" is on the increase, especially among children. Most of the convenient, pre-packaged snack foods such as fizzy drinks, chocolate, crisps and biscuits are high in fat, sugar, salt and calories. This has implications for health. For this reason the Southern Health and Social Services Board (SHSSB), Northern Ireland, together with the Southern Education and Library Board (SELB), Northern Ireland, decided to set up a scheme to reward schools which had a healthy break-time policy. Outlines an award scheme called Boost Better Breaks. All nursery, primary and post-primary schools in the SHSSB were encouraged to participate. One of the criteria for qualification was "If any food is permitted at break-time only fruit and/or milk can be taken". Nursery schools were also allowed to have healthy snacks. Finds that, of schools in the SHSSB, 9 per cent (27) received the award on its pilot run, and because of its success the award scheme has now been extended to playgroups and special schools.The Boost Better Breaks award scheme was successful because of the contributions of the following people: Ruth Balmer, Community Dietitian, SHSSB until January 1995, Anne Black, SELB Field Officer for Health Education, parents, principals, teachers and governors of schools who participated in the scheme and SHSSB dental staff.
Background: Increasing fruit and vegetable (FV) intake can optimise nutrition, enhance health and reduce obesity risks (Lock et al., 2005). Despite public‐health initiatives to promote these benefits, consumption in UK children remains poor (National Health Service, 2009). This study explored primary‐school children's perspectives of FVs aiming to gain insight into the personal, social and cultural factors that may influence inadequate intakes. Method: Three focus groups comprising of six randomly selected, 7–9 year old children (three boys, three girls) were conducted representing three demographically diverse primary schools in Plymouth, England. Qualitative data was generated through group discussions, tasting sessions, writing exercises and grouping activities. Three observers documented behaviour throughout. Conversations were digitally voice recorded and manually transcribed verbatim. To ensure reliability and validity, four researchers analysed each transcript and observational data to identify significant themes, frequencies and patterns (Hancock, 2002). No formal statistics were applied. The project obtained ethical approval via the University of Plymouth School of Health Professions. Results: Perceptions were found to be associated with four major themes: positive health benefits, knowledge, sensory properties and food safety. Preference was linked to familiarity, a uniform appearance and favoured tastes/textures (e.g. sweet). FVs considered ‘out of date’ or covered in soil, were viewed as a possible health risk. Reported usage patterns of FVs for meals/snacks were similar across all groups and lacked variety. Enjoyable experiences were associated with positive attitudes towards consumption. Family and peer influences were noted in observational and self‐reported data. Lower socio economic status (SES) and age was associated with reduced familiarity, knowledge, and willingness to try. Older children and those with higher SES exhibited heightened awareness of health benefits and cited texture and quality as a determinant of consumption in addition to taste. Discussion: Results relating to preference and determinants of consumption were comparable with previous research (Rassmussen et al., 2006). Preference, attitude, knowledge experience and behaviour differed between focus groups. Further replication and a greater sample size are required to investigate the extent to which differences can be attributed to focus group disparity in age (7–9 years), cognition and/or demographics (Zeinstra et al., 2007). Conclusions: Public health strategies that increase positive childhood FV experiences and promote FVs as fun, enjoyable and satiating rather than just ‘healthy’, may be advantageous in promoting consumption. Further research initiatives targeted at primary school children might also consider family/peer group influences and home FV usage in relation to variety and meal patterns. References: Hancock, B. (1998) Trent Focus for Research and Development in Primary Health Care: Introduction to Qualitative ...
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