Clinical trial NCT01573845: The GREEN Project Lunch Box Study
Official title: The GREEN (Growing Right: Eating Eco-Friendly & Nutritious) Project Lunch Box Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Health Communication
Keywords: child
communication
diet
food
health communication
nutrition
parents
primary schools
school age population
school health
Lead sponsor: Tufts University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
First posted: 2012-04-10
Enrollment: 979
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL

Brief summary: The central hypothesis of The GREEN Project Lunch Box Study is that a school-based communication campaign that combines healthy eating and eco-friendly messages will improve the quality of foods that children bring from home to school more than a healthy eating campaign alone and compared to a control/delayed intervention condition at the end of one school year.

Detailed description: The proposed intervention seeks to improve the quality of foods brought to school from home by taking advantage of a natural synergy between healthy eating and eco-friendly behaviors to increase motivation to adopt healthy eating behaviors. The project involves the design, implementation and evaluation of a novel, school based communications campaign to simultaneously improve the nutrition quality and eco-friendliness of foods that elementary school children bring from home to school.

The intervention is a theory-based multi-channel communications campaign based on qualitative research with the target population: children in grades three and four in public schools in Eastern Massachusetts and their caregivers. Schools were randomized to one of three conditions: (1) a campaign that includes healthy eating and eco-friendly messages; (2) a campaign that includes healthy eating messages only; and (3) a delayed healthy eating eco-friendly campaign after serving as a control group. Foods brought from home and the packaging associated with those foods will be assessed at baseline and at the end of the school year using a photographic technique.

The primary outcome of interest is change in the number of servings of fruits and vegetables. Secondary outcomes will include changes in the quantity of sugar-sweetened beverages; changes in processed, energy-dense foods; and changes in sugar sweetened beverages brought from home. We will also be able to assess changes in trash associated with foods brought from home.

Eligibility criteria: CHILD PARTICIPANTS

Inclusion Criteria:

* 3rd or 4th grade student in participating classroom
* Brings food from home to school at least 3 days per week

Exclusion Criteria:

* Not a 3rd or 4th grade student
* Not enrolled in a participating classroom
* Does not bring food from home to school at least three days per week

PARENT/CARETAKER PARTICIPANTS

Inclusion Criteria:

* Child is a 3rd or 4th grade student in participating classroom
* Child brings food from home to school at least 3 days per week

Exclusion Criteria:

* Child is not a 3rd or 4th grade student
* Child is not enrolled in a participating classroom
* Child does not bring food from home to school at least three days per week

Primary outcomes:
measure: Changes in the quantity of fruit and vegetables brought from home to school
timeFrame: 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Changes in the quantity of sugar-sweetened beverages brought from home to school
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Changes in the quantity of processed, energy-dense foods brought from home to school
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Changes in trash weight associated with foods brought from home to school
timeFrame: 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Tufts University
name: Jeanne P Goldberg, PhD, RD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Hubbard KL, Must A, Eliasziw M, Folta SC, Goldberg J. What's in children's backpacks: foods brought from home. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Sep;114(9):1424-31. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2014.05.010. Epub 2014 Jul 16.
citation: Goldberg JP, Folta SC, Eliasziw M, Koch-Weser S, Economos CD, Hubbard KL, Tanskey LA, Wright CM, Must A. Great Taste, Less Waste: a cluster-randomized trial using a communications campaign to improve the quality of foods brought from home to school by elementary school children. Prev Med. 2015 May;74:103-10. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.02.010. Epub 2015 Feb 28.