Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA.
J Sch Health. 2011 Aug;81(8):431-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00612.x.
Foods provided in schools represent a substantial portion of US children's dietary intake; however, the school food environment has proven difficult to describe due to the lack of comprehensive, standardized, and validated measures.
As part of the Arkansas Act 1220 evaluation project, we developed the School Cafeteria Nutrition Assessment (SCNA) measures to assess food availability in public school cafeterias (n = 113). The SCNA provides a measure to evaluate monthly school lunch menus and to observe foods offered in school cafeterias during the lunch period. These measures provide information on the availability of fruit, vegetables, grains (whole or white), chips (reduced fat or regular), side dishes, main dishes, beverages, à la carte selections, and desserts, as well as information on healthier preparation of these items. Using independent raters, the inter-rater reliability of the measure was determined among a subsample of these schools (n = 32).
All food categories assessed, with the exception of the side dish and chip categories, had inter-rater reliability rates of 0.79 or greater, regardless of school type. The SCNA scores encompassed the majority of the possible scores, indicating the ability for the measures to differentiate between school cafeterias in the availability of healthier options.
These measures allow comprehensive, rapid measurement of school cafeteria food availability with high inter-rater reliability for public health and school health professionals, communities, and school personnel. These measures have the potential to contribute to school health efforts to evaluate cafeteria offerings and/or the impact of policy changes regarding school foods.
学校提供的食品在美国儿童的饮食中占很大一部分；然而，由于缺乏全面、标准化和经过验证的措施，学校的食品环境一直难以描述。
作为阿肯色州第 1220 号法案评估项目的一部分，我们开发了学校自助餐厅营养评估 (SCNA) 措施，以评估公立学校自助餐厅的食品供应情况（n = 113）。SCNA 提供了一种评估每月学校午餐菜单的方法，并观察学校自助餐厅在午餐时间提供的食品。这些措施提供了有关水果、蔬菜、谷物（全麦或白）、薯片（低脂或普通）、配菜、主菜、饮料、点菜和甜点供应情况的信息，以及这些项目更健康的准备方法的信息。使用独立的评估员，在这些学校的一个样本（n = 32）中确定了该措施的评估员间可靠性。
除了配菜和薯片类别外，所有评估的食品类别都具有 0.79 或更高的评估员间可靠性，无论学校类型如何。SCNA 得分涵盖了大多数可能的分数，表明这些措施能够区分学校自助餐厅提供更健康选择的能力。
这些措施允许公共卫生和学校卫生专业人员、社区和学校人员全面、快速地测量学校自助餐厅的食品供应情况，并且具有很高的评估员间可靠性。这些措施有可能有助于学校健康工作，评估自助餐厅的供应情况和/或政策变化对学校食品的影响。
