Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 21;14(3):e0214320. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214320. eCollection 2019.
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a school garden program on children's vegetable consumption and determinants and to gain insight into the process of the program.
The "Taste Garden" is a real-world nine-week school garden program developed and implemented by a local organization. A total of 350 children (149 intervention group, 201 control group) filled out questionnaires on vegetable consumption, determinants and process of the program. Additionally, teachers filled out a process evaluation questionnaire. For effect evaluation, interaction effects (time x group) were considered, using multilevel repeated measures analyses in MLwiN 3.02. Interaction effects were repeated, taking into account quality of implementation (time x implementation group). Process evaluation was descriptively assessed with SPSS 24.0.
Overall, beside some practical concerns of teachers, the program was well perceived by teachers and children. However, an intervention effect of "The Taste Garden" was only found for knowledge (p = 0.02), with a very small effect size (0.55%). When taking into account implementation quality, only small effects were found for awareness (p between 0.005 and 0.007 and an effect size of 0.63%) and knowledge (p between 0.04 and 0.09 and an effect size of 0.65%).
Evaluation of the real-world "Taste Garden" program, which was positively perceived by teachers, showed no effects on vegetable consumption and small effects on its determinants. Adaptations of the current format and longer follow-up periods are therefore recommended.
本研究旨在探讨校园菜园计划对儿童蔬菜摄入量的影响及其决定因素,并深入了解该计划的实施过程。
“品味花园”是一个由当地组织开发和实施的为期九周的真实校园菜园计划。共有 350 名儿童(149 名干预组,201 名对照组)填写了关于蔬菜摄入量、决定因素和计划过程的问卷。此外,教师填写了一份过程评估问卷。对于效果评估,考虑了交互效应(时间×组),使用 MLwiN 3.02 中的多层次重复测量分析进行分析。交互效应重复考虑了实施质量(时间×实施组)。使用 SPSS 24.0 对过程评估进行描述性评估。
总体而言,除了教师的一些实际问题外,该计划得到了教师和儿童的好评。然而,“品味花园”的干预效果仅在知识方面得到了证实(p=0.02),且效果非常小(0.55%)。当考虑实施质量时,仅在意识(p 在 0.005 到 0.007 之间,效果大小为 0.63%)和知识(p 在 0.04 到 0.09 之间,效果大小为 0.65%)方面发现了较小的效果。
对教师评价积极的现实世界“品味花园”计划的评估表明,该计划对蔬菜摄入量没有影响,对其决定因素的影响较小。因此,建议对当前形式进行调整并延长随访时间。