More than 60% of preschool children in the US eat one or more of their daily meals in a childcare setting. Although there are childcare centers continuing to provide meals to children, a growing trend is for centers to discontinue their meal program and require that parents provide sack lunches for their children. Preliminary data indicate these packed lunches are low in servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. With the growing issue of child overweight, consumption of meals low in high nutrient foods as recommended in the Dietary Guidelines can lead to the development of poor eating habits that can persist over time. The primary aim of this study is to revise, implement and evaluate a behaviorally-based intervention, the Lunch Box Program, to increase the servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains parents pack in preschool child lunches. This study will be implemented in three phases. Phase 1 (months 1 through 6 of the project) includes a planning meeting with a select advisory group as well focus groups with child care personnel and focus groups with parents to adapt the Lunch Box Program (LBP) with a behavioral focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains as well as editing and evaluation of tools to measure program-specific behavioral outcomes (e.g., parents'expectations and intentions for packing more fruits, vegetables and whole grains in the lunches). Phase 2 (months 6 through 10) includes focus testing and finalizing adaptations to the LBP as well as recruitment of families to participate in a pilot of the adapted LBP. In Phase 3 (months 11 through 19), a pilot of the adapted LBP will be conducted with the participation of 40 families at 3 childcare centers randomly assigned to intervention and 40 families at 3 centers assigned to comparison. The intervention will be conducted over a 6 week period, with pre- and post-tests consisting of observations of the sack lunches and parent questionnaires. Process data also will be collected to evaluate dose, fidelity and feasibility of the intervention for sustainable implementation in childcare settings. Results from the pilot will be used to determine Interclass Correlation Coefficient for detectable effect computations to power an R01 with a group randomized design using childcare center as the unit of randomization and child's parent as the unit of analysis.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
5R21CA123140-02
Application #
7561751
Study Section
Community Influences on Health Behavior (CIHB)
Program Officer
Agurs-Collins, Tanya
Project Start
2008-02-01
Project End
2011-01-31
Budget Start
2009-02-01
Budget End
2011-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$167,884
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas Austin
Department
Social Sciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
170230239
City
Austin
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
78712
Sweitzer, Sara J; Byrd-Williams, Courtney E; Ranjit, Nalini et al. (2015) Development of a Method to Observe Preschoolers' Packed Lunches in Early Care and Education Centers. J Acad Nutr Diet 115:1249-59
Briley, Margaret E; Ranjit, Nalini; Hoelscher, Deanna M et al. (2012) Unbundling outcomes of a multilevel intervention to increase fruit, vegetables, and whole grains parents pack for their preschool children in sack lunches. Am J Health Educ 43:135-142
Sweitzer, Sara J; Briley, Margaret E; Roberts-Gray, Cindy et al. (2011) How to help parents pack better preschool sack lunches: advice from parents for educators. J Nutr Educ Behav 43:194-8
Almansour, Fawaz D; Sweitzer, Sara J; Magness, Allison A et al. (2011) Temperature of foods sent by parents of preschool-aged children. Pediatrics 128:519-23
Sweitzer, Sara J; Briley, Margaret E; Roberts-Gray, Cindy et al. (2011) Psychosocial outcomes of Lunch is in the Bag, a parent program for packing healthful lunches for preschool children. J Nutr Educ Behav 43:536-42
Sweitzer, Sara J; Briley, Margaret E; Roberts-Gray, Cindy et al. (2010) Lunch is in the bag: increasing fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches of preschool-aged children. J Am Diet Assoc 110:1058-64