The impacts of free school lunch policies on adolescent BMI and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea

Bethmann, Dirk; Cho, Jae Il

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101072

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(53 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Improving diet quality could for example be done by implementing regular and healthy school meals in German primary schools. Regular school meals have been shown to consequently improve cognitive function, school performance, BMI [50][51][52][53][54] and quality of life [55,56].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the anthropometric development in primary school children in the Rhein-Neckar Region, Germany

Samigullin,

Groß,

Gählert

et al. 2024

BMC Nutr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Published data suggests that lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic may have negatively affected children’s weight development. This study aims to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity after the COVID-19 lockdowns as well as anthropometric development among primary school children in the Rhein-Neckar Region, Germany. Methods In this cross-sectional study, schools were selected in cooperation with the local health authority to include different socioeconomic backgrounds. Participation was voluntary at school and individual level, requiring written informed consent from legal guardians. Study visits in schools were conducted between October 2021 and July 2022. Anthropometric data from nationally recommended medical examinations at 4 years (U8) and 5 years (U9), data on nutrition, physical activity, and socioeconomic data was collected using questionnaires. zBMI and weight category were calculated based on German reference data. Results 256 children with a mean age of 8.0 years (7.1–9.3 years) were included in the study. Most participants were from households with an above average income. 5.1% of the children were overweight, 4.7% were obese, 15.6% were underweight, and 74.6% were normal weight with a mean zBMI of -0.25 (SD 1.10), which is significantly lower than the mean zBMI of the German reference population (p < 0.001). No significant changes in zBMI were observed between U8 and U9 (p = 0.16). The mean zBMI decreased by 0.17 (SD 0.72) between U9 and the study visit (p = 0.02). A zBMI decrease of 0.5 was documented for the subgroup of overweight and obese children (p = 0.028) as well as a decrease of 0.23 (SD 0.63) for the normal-weight children subgroup (p < 0.001). Conclusions Contrary to previous reports mean zBMI decreased significantly in the children studied. No significant changes in zBMI were observed between U8 and U9 examinations, which supports the hypothesis that the decrease in zBMI could be attributed to lockdown measures. The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov on September 21st 2021 under the registration number NCT05077059.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the anthropometric development in primary school children in the Rhein-Neckar Region, Germany

Samigullin,

Groß,

Gählert

et al. 2024

BMC Nutr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In this study, we utilize a logistic nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design regression model to evaluate the impact of the integration of medical insurance for urban and rural residents on prevalence of functional limitations among middle-aged and elderly individuals residing in rural areas, taking into account the temporal variation in the implementation of the medical insurance system for urban and rural residents. The underlying principle of the DID model is to establish a treatment group comprising of individuals who have undergone the integration policy of medical insurance for urban and rural residents and a control group consisting of individuals who have not yet participated in the integration of health insurance policies, in order to discern the differences in functional limitations among middle-aged and elderly individuals residing in rural areas prior to and following the implementation of the policy ( Bethmann & Cho, 2022 ; Boelens et al, 2022 ). The specific model can be expressed as: model: Logit(Pr(y=1| Treat, Period)) =β 0 + β 1 ∗ Treat + β 2 ∗ Period + β 3 ∗ DID + β 4 ∗ Covariates + ε …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the integration of urban and rural health insurance influence the functional limitations of the middle-aged and elderly in rural China?

Huang

Yeo

2023

SSM - Population Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…International evidence also points to the potential for reductions in obesity, for example in South Korea (Bethmann and Cho, 2022). But in some countries, such as the US, school nutrition programmes actually increase obesity.…”

Section: Impacts On Health and Nutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The policy menu for school lunches: options and trade-offs in expanding free school meals in England

Cribb¹,

Farquharson²,

McKendrick³

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Of the 8.4 million children in English state schools, 3.4 million are eligible to get a free meal at school each day. Just under 2 million of these children are eligible through the means-tested system, which includes children whose families are receiving certain means-tested benefits and on very low incomes. Since 2014, all children in the first three years of primary school -Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 -have been eligible for free school meals.Options to expand free school meals have been frequently discussed. London Mayor Sadiq Khan recently announced that, in 2023-24, all primary-age children in state schools in London will be eligible for a free school meal, expanding eligibility by 270,000 pupils beyond the 550,000 who are already eligible. Other proposals suggest expanding entitlement to free school meals by increasing the earnings threshold for eligibility from the current £7,400 a year (after tax). For example, the National Food Strategy suggested a threshold of £20,000 a year after tax.In this report, we discuss the options and trade-offs in expanding free school meals in England.We focus on several potential reforms that would expand the generosity of the free school meal system, either by increasing the value of free school meals or by expanding eligibility to a wider range of pupils, and set out the costs of these policies, their distributional impacts, and their potential effect on parents' work incentives. Key findings1. Just under a quarter of pupils in England are eligible for means-tested free school meals this year, compared with a long-run average of about one in six.The recent rise in eligibility is mainly the result of 'transitional protections' that exist due to replacement of the legacy benefit system with universal credit, but it also reflects changes to the labour market during the pandemic. Total spending on free school meals throughout term-time is around £1.4 billion a year in England.2. Evidence from England and internationally suggests that free school meals reduce the amount that families spend on groceries, but usually by less than the value of the meals (suggesting that families respond partly by increasing the quantity or quality of food they consume). While the evidence for health benefits is mixed (though generally positive outside the United States), there is a fairly strong evidence baseThe policy menu for school lunches: options and trade-offs in expanding free school meals in England  The Institute for Fiscal Studies, March 2023 3 suggesting that children who receive free school meals benefit academically, largely because school meals on average offer better nutritional value than packed lunches. Some of these benefits persist into adulthood.3. Funding for free school meals has not kept pace with inflation. Since 2014, the permeal funding rate has lost 16% of its value in real terms. The funding rate currently stands at £2.41 per meal; if it had increased in line with inflation as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, it would now be £2.87. Increasing the funding rate t...

show abstract

The impacts of free school lunch policies on adolescent BMI and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea

Cited by 8 publications

References 45 publications

Impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the anthropometric development in primary school children in the Rhein-Neckar Region, Germany

Impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on the anthropometric development in primary school children in the Rhein-Neckar Region, Germany

Does the integration of urban and rural health insurance influence the functional limitations of the middle-aged and elderly in rural China?

The policy menu for school lunches: options and trade-offs in expanding free school meals in England

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About