Changing fruit and vegetable consumption among children: the 5-a-Day Power Plus program in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: A randomized school based trial sought to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among children using a multicomponent approach. METHODS: The intervention, conducted in 20 elementary schools in St. Paul, targeted a multiethnic group of children who were in the fourth grade in spring 1995 and the fifth grade in fall 1995. The intervention consisted of behavioral curricula in classrooms, parental involvement, school food service changes, and industry support and involvement. Lunchroom observations and 24-hour food recalls measured food consumption. Parent telephone surveys and a health behavior questionnaire measured psychosocial factors. RESULTS: The intervention increased lunchtime fruit consumption and combined fruit and vegetable consumption, lunchtime vegetable consumption among girls, and daily fruit consumption as well as the proportion of total daily calories attributable to fruits and vegetables. CONCLUSIONS: Multicomponent school-based programs can increase fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Greater involvement of parents and more attention to increasing vegetable consumption, especially among boys, remain challenges in future intervention research.

Longitudinal trends in consumption of vegetables and fruit in Finnish children in an atherosclerosis prevention study (STRIP)

“…Interestingly, the intervention and control girls' consumption did not differ. In the American 5-Day Power Plus Program intervention study, girls appeared to be more receptive than boys to increasing their vegetable consumption (Perry et al, 1998a). The previous results of the serum cholesterol concentrations in the STRIP children make the difference in the intervention effect by genders even more interesting.…”

A meta-analytic review of obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents: The skinny on interventions that work.

“…Thus, we hypothesized that effects will be significantly larger for interventions offered to adolescents versus children. Participant gender-Results from prior trials suggest that obesity prevention programs that promote a healthier lower-calorie diet (Perry et al, 1998) and those that also attempted to increase physical activity and/or decrease sedentary behavior (Gortmaker et al, 1999;Vandongen et al, 1995) produced larger effects for females than for males. However, another obesity prevention program that promoted healthy lower-calorie diets and increased physical activity found significantly stronger effects for males than for females (Kain, Uauy, Vio, Cerda, & Leyton, 2004) and one obesity treatment trial found that an intervention solely aimed at increasing activity and decreasing sedentary behaviors was more effective for boys than girls, though an intervention solely focusing on increasing activity level was equally effective for boys and girls (Epstein, Paluch, & Raynor, 2001).…”

Modifying children's food preferences: the effects of exposure and reward on acceptance of an unfamiliar vegetable

“…This is partly because intervention earlier in the lifecycle might be expected to yield maximum health benefits (Perry et al, 1998). It is also because eating habits established in childhood are likely to track into adulthood (Kelder, et al, 1994;Resnicow et al, 1998;Singer et al, 1995).…”

“…Interventions directed at modifying children's intake of fruit and vegetables have had limited success. For example, the '5-a-day' programme in the USA comprised a series of interventions tailored to different sections of the community (Basch et al, 1994;Perry et al, 1998;Sorensen et al, 1999). Results so far appear limited in the light of the enormous investment involved (eg Havas et al, 1998), and there is still an urgent need for new strategies to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables.…”