School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland 1145, New Zealand.
Research and Innovation Centre, Eastern Institute of Technology, Napier 4112, New Zealand.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 13;19(8):4709. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19084709.
Healthy food environments in early childhood play an important role in establishing health-promoting nutritional behaviours for later life. We surveyed Early Learning Services (ELS) in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand and describe common barriers and facilitators to providing a healthy food environment, through descriptive survey analysis and thematic analysis of open-ended questions. We used a policy analysis tool to assess the strength and comprehensiveness of the individual centre’s nutrition policies and we report on the healthiness of menus provided daily in the centres. Sixty-two centres participated and 96.7% had policies on nutrition compared to 86.7% with policies on drinks. Of the 14 full policies provided for analysis, identified strengths were providing timelines for review and encouraging role modelling by teachers. The main weaknesses were communication with parents and staff, lack of nutrition training for staff and absence of policies for special occasion and fundraising food. With regard to practices in the ELS, food for celebrations was more likely to be healthy when provided by the centre rather than brought from home. Food used in fundraising was more likely to be unhealthy than healthy, though <20% of centres reported using food in fundraising. Only 40% of menus analysed met the national guidelines by not including any ‘red’ (unhealthy) items. Centre Managers considered the biggest barriers to improving food environments to be a lack of parental support and concerns about food-related choking. These results highlight the need for future focus in three areas: policies for water and milk-only, celebration and fundraising food; increased nutrition-focused professional learning and development for teachers; and communication between the centre and parents, as a crucial pathway to improved nutrition for children attending NZ early childhood education and care centres.
幼儿时期健康的食物环境对于培养促进健康的营养行为以应对未来生活至关重要。我们对新西兰霍克斯湾地区的早期学习服务（ELS）进行了调查，并通过描述性调查分析和对开放式问题的主题分析，描述了为提供健康食物环境的常见障碍和促进因素。我们使用政策分析工具评估了各个中心营养政策的强度和全面性，并报告了中心每日提供的菜单的健康程度。有 62 个中心参与了调查，其中 96.7%的中心有营养政策，而有 86.7%的中心有饮料政策。在提供分析的 14 项完整政策中，确定的优势包括提供审查时间表和鼓励教师树立榜样。主要弱点是与家长和员工的沟通、员工缺乏营养培训以及缺乏特殊场合和筹款食品的政策。关于 ELS 的实践，中心提供的庆祝食品比从家里带来的更有可能是健康的。用于筹款的食品更有可能是不健康的，尽管只有<20%的中心报告使用筹款食品。只有 40%的分析菜单符合国家指导方针，没有任何“红色”（不健康）项目。中心经理认为改善食物环境的最大障碍是缺乏家长的支持和对与食物相关的窒息问题的担忧。这些结果突出表明，未来需要关注以下三个领域：水和牛奶专用、庆祝和筹款食品的政策；增加教师关注营养的专业学习和发展；以及中心与家长之间的沟通，这是改善新西兰幼儿教育和护理中心儿童营养的关键途径。
