Interventieonderzoek naar het themacertificaat ‘Voeding’ van Gezonde School

Abstract

Children often make unhealthy food choices that can lead to excessive intake of unhealthy food. There is an alarming increase in the number of children with overweight. The aim of this study was to formulate recommendations to make the certificate more evidence-based. For this purpose the actual nutrition behaviour, the associated determinants of behaviour, the potential effectiveness and the experienced implementation and effectiveness of two Dutch Healthy Schools with a 'Nutrition' certificate were examined. In this study, data was acquired from 35 students aged 10 to 13 through questionnaires, 10 students were interviewed and the document of one Healthy School was analyzed. Most students said they have breakfast daily, hardly eat unhealthy snacks at school and did not reach the Dutch standard to eat daily two pieces of fruit and 150-200 grams vegetables. They chose food mainly because of the great taste, even though they all knew unhealthy food was bad. Students said that their nutrition behaviour is influenced, especially by their parents, and that the great taste and temptation of unhealthy food makes it difficult to choose healthy food. They said that they eat healthier at school than they do at home. The document of the Healthy School didn’t reach the general methodological conditions for potential effectiveness. The main recommended was that the intervention ‘Smaaklessen’ should be added to the programs of the schools and parents should be more involved.