Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Shaping Healthy Choices Program (SHCP).
Design
A clustered, randomized, controlled intervention lasting 1 school year.
Setting
Schools in northern and central California.
Participants
Fourth-graders (aged 9–10 years) at 2 control schools (n = 179) and 2 intervention
schools (n = 230).
Intervention
Garden-enhanced education, family, and community partnerships; increased regionally
procured produce in the lunchroom; and school-site wellness committees.
Main Outcome Measures
Changes in body mass index (BMI) percentiles/Z-scores; nutrition knowledge, science
process skills, and vegetable identification and preferences; and reported fruit and
vegetable intake.
Analysis
Student t test, chi-square, ANOVA of change, and multilevel regression mixed model to evaluate change
in outcomes with school as a random effect to account for cluster design effects.
Statistical significance was set at P < .05.
Results
There was a greater improvement in BMI percentile (−6.08; P < 0.01), BMI Z-score (−0.28; P < .001), and waist-to-height ratio (−0.02; P < .001) in the intervention compared with the control schools.
Conclusions and Implications
The SHCP resulted in improvements in nutrition knowledge, vegetable identification,
and a significant decrease in BMI percentiles. This supports the concept that the
SHCP can be used to improve the health of upper elementary school students.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 08, 2017
Accepted:
December 17,
2016
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors' conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
©2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
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- CorrigendumJournal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorVol. 50Issue 8
- PreviewThe May 2017 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior carried a Research Article titled “A Multicomponent, School-Based Intervention, the Shaping Healthy Choices Program, Improves Nutrition-Related Outcomes” (JNEB 2017;49:368-379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2016.12.007 ). The authors would like to amend some of the statements made in the paper. Additional analyses were conducted to control for clustering and as a result, the authors have clarified that results of the subanalysis of weight-related outcomes were only observed in the district that fully implemented the program.
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- A Comment on Scherr et al “A Multicomponent, School-Based Intervention, the Shaping Healthy Choices Program, Improves Nutrition-Related Outcomes”Journal of Nutrition Education and BehaviorVol. 50Issue 3
- PreviewWe write in response to the article by Scherr et al1 entitled “A multicomponent, school-based intervention, the Shaping Healthy Choices Program, improves nutrition-related outcomes.” We admire Scherr et al for undertaking such a challenging study on so important a topic, and for wisely using a randomized controlled design, the design that allows for the strongest causal inferences.
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