A healthy eating and lifestyle school intervention : conceptual and attitudinal change but no behavioural change

Abstract

Low fruit and vegetables intake in adolescence is among main risk factors for obesity and other chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Establishing healthy eating habits in adolescents is of paramount importance to lead to future healthy adults, and school is the best place to take forward an effective approach to improve their food choices. The aim of this study was to investigate how far a specific school intervention is able to promote conceptual, attitudinal and behavioural changes, as far as healthy eating and physical activity are concerned. Sixty five adolescents of 11 to 13 years-old participated in this follow-up study: 36 (55.4%) boys and 29 (44.6%) girls. The methodology was based on four steps with three evaluation periods: 1st evaluation and characterization of the sample (“baseline”); 2nd evaluation after a three-month intervention; 3rd evaluation one year after the intervention. All evaluations included adolescents’ nutritional status assessment (by anthropometric measurements) as well as eating knowledge, food consumption and physical activity (by self-reporting questionnaire). The 3rd evaluation also included gathering adolescents’ opinions on their participation in the healthy habits intervention and how relevant they had found it. Along the three evaluations, adolescents’ knowledge and their attitudes towards healthy habits tended to improve and they became aware of the importance of adopting healthy eating habits. However, no statistically significant differences in lifestyle behaviours were found, such as in daily intake of fruits and vegetables and physical activity changes. Results from this initial study have the potential to guide future research for planning a larger and deeper intervention programme in order to improve not only adolescents’ attitudes towards healthy food choices but also improving their healthy behaviours.