Narrative-based strategies to promote healthy eating behaviours in childhood: a systematic review

Abstract

Obesity is becoming the global epidemic of the twenty-first century. Moreover, the number of obese or overweight children has increased during the last decades, resulting in negative physical and psychological health consequences during childhood, adolescence and in adults. Following the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), a huge variety of obesity prevention and treatment programs have been introduced in the school setting to encourage healthy eating behaviours in childhood. The aim of our systematic review was to explore the use and efficacy of narrative-based strategies in promoting healthy eating behaviours in schoolchildren. Materials and Methods. We have carried out an updated systematic review on the following databases (PubMed, Psychinfo, ERIC and EBSCO) to assess papers published from the year 2000 to January 2018, which addressed the issue of narrative-based interventions in schoolchildren for the adoption of healthy food habits. Results. Our initial search found out 169 and 50 studies on PubMed and Psychinfo databases, respectively; 24 and 12 articles were found on ERIC and EBSCO datasets, respectively. After the application of the predefined exclusion criteria, we selected a total of 15 papers from PubMed and 12 articles from Psychinfo. Among these 27 papers, only six articles (two Randomized Controlled Trials and * Manuela Pulimeno è Dottoranda di Ricerca in Scienze delle Relazioni Umane presso l'Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro" (Bari). Prisco Piscitelli è Medico epidemiologo del Dipartimento di Prevenzione ASL Lecce e Ricercatore ISBEM. Elisabetta De Marco è Dottore di Ricerca presso l'Università del Salento (Lecce). Salvatore Colazzo è Professore Ordinario di Pedagogia Sperimentale presso l'Università del Salento (Lecce). Narrative-based strategies 185four Cohort studies) met the inclusion criteria and were considered for our systematic review because explicitly presenting nutrition school-based interventions that used narrative pedagogy or storytelling to promote healthy eating behaviours among children. Conclusion. Nutrition education in school setting is a key element in promoting lifelong healthy eating behaviours and should start from the early stages of life. Among all the possible interventions, narrative-based approaches (i.e. storytelling) seem to be at least as effective as other different educational programmes in encouraging the adoption of healthy food habits during childhood, especially when active involvement of the children is ensured.

Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing

“…unhealthy eating habits), thanks to psychological processes based on the identification with the characters of the stories. 17 Actually, children literature and storytelling have been proved to be effective in specifically conveying health knowledge: the persuasive effects of narrative engagement have been illustrated in many researches and reviews. [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] De Graaf et al have specifically performed a systematic review of 153 experimental studies on health-related narrative persuasion with a focus on the narrative characteristics as potential explanatory factors in the effectiveness to convey a health message.…”

“…In our previous systematic review, we have provided evidence for taking into account narrative-based strategies among the possible highly motivating approaches to encourage schoolchildren in adopting healthy eating habits since childhood. 17,18 More broadly, in this paper we explored the rationale for using children's literature and storytelling in school setting to promote students' global development and wellbeing.…”

Teachers’ Perceptions of Integrating Tower Gardens into Pre-K4 Curriculum

“…While these programs can yield positive outcomes and encourage healthy eating, they do not establish lifelong healthy eating habits. Hands-on nutrition education, however, allows students to make meaning of nutrition and drives these lifelong healthy eating behaviors [7]. Therefore, implementing an effective nutrition education program in early childhood education is critical.…”

School as ideal setting to promote health and wellbeing among young people

“…3 Our first systematic review examined a number of studies concerning the effectiveness of multicomponent narrative-based strategies to improve healthy eating habits and decrease risk factors for overweight and obesity in schoolchildren. 9 More broadly, beyond the specific topic of healthy nutrition, children’s global wellbeing might be systematically promoted at school by adopting innovative active approaches, where young people are not considered passive or simple audience, but are engaged in practical actions about healthy lifestyles (i.e. balanced nutrition and physical exercise, no smoking, no alcohol, no drugs etc).…”