Clinical trial NCT03513081: Children Food Neophobia - a Playful Intervention at a Kindergarten
Official title: Children Food Neophobia - a Playful Intervention at a Kindergarten
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Preschool Children
Keywords: food neophobia
preschool
children
Lead sponsor: Instituto Politécnico de Leiria
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Universidade do Porto
First posted: 2018-05-01
Enrollment: 82
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 6
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: The aim of this project is to investigate the efficacy of taste exposure-plus small reward in acceptance and consumption of vegetables among preschool children at school. In this context, interventions were attended at school in order to capture the influence of this environments towards consumption of vegetables among preschool children. For this, the methodology applied will be a repeated exposure protocol by introducing small rewards to encourage children to taste an unfamiliar or dislike food. Child intake (weight or number of pieces) and liking (hedonic scale) will be assessed at baseline sessions and exposure sessions. Moreover, child's neophobia will be evaluated and additional determinants of child neophobia, such as child's eating behaviour

Detailed description: Food neophobia, understood as the rejection of novel foods, is considered one of the biggest barriers to the consumption of fruits and vegetables in preschool children. Some factors like food preferences, gender, genetic characteristics, psychological factors and family factors are also crucial for the acceptance of vegetable in childhood. Some strategies used to modify food preferences of children are repeated exposure and the use of rewards. The aim of this project is to investigate the efficacy of taste exposure-plus small reward in acceptance and consumption of vegetables among preschool children at school. In this context, interventions were attended at school to capture the influence of this environment towards consumption of vegetables among preschool children.

For this, the methodology applied will be a repeated exposure protocol by introducing small rewards to encourage children to taste an unfamiliar or dislike food. Child intake (weight or number of pieces) and liking (hedonic scale) will be assessed at baseline sessions and exposure sessions. Moreover, child's neophobia will be evaluated and additional determinants of child neophobia, such as child's eating behaviour. Quantitative data analysis will be performed by software IBM-SPSS Statistics®. In conducting this research is expected to achieve techniques to overcome neophobia in preschool children and promote vegetable consumption in school and at home. The results may contribute to improve food quality in childhood and consequently in adulthood.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* children attending an educational institution

Exclusion Criteria:

* children with cognitive impairment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Child Food Neophobia
timeFrame: 4 months
measure: Child Eating Behaviour
timeFrame: 4 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Intake of an unfamiliar salad
timeFrame: 4 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Universidade do Porto
name: Luis Cunha, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: