AlGurg Reem, Mahfouz Nour Abu, Otaki Farah, Paulus Agnes, Khamis Amar Hassan, Alameddine Mohamad
Strategy and Institutional Excellence, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Front Public Health. 2025 Jul 25;13:1584497. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1584497. eCollection 2025.
Little is known about the execution of School Nutrition Programs (SNPs) within schools across the public and private sectors in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This highlights the importance of capturing an inside perspective about the specificities of the SNPs in order to ensure their effective, efficient, and equitable implementation across schools, irrespective of whether they are public or private.
The overall purpose of this study was to develop insight into SNPs in Dubai, and to investigate the difference in characteristics of those SNPs, between the public and private sectors.
This study relied on a quantitative tailor-made survey. The data were analyzed using SPSS; descriptive analysis consisted of computing the proportions for all the variables. In terms of inferential analysis, chi-square test of independence was selected to determine whether there are associations between the categorical variables (i.e., the various characteristics of the SNPs, and whether the corresponding schools are public or private).
Out of 75 school representatives who were invited to participate in the current study, 60 responded, of whom 48 school representatives indicated that their respective schools had SNPs. These 48 SNPs had varying implementation scopes and program compositions (i.e., combination of initiatives) of Parents' Involvement, Lunch Box, Educational Curriculum, Hydration, Awareness Activities, School Canteen, and/ or Food Safety and Hygiene. The stakeholders involved in developing and maintaining the respective SNPs and the intended outcomes of those programs also differed across the schools.
This study highlights, in alignment with Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 9 and 17, the importance of the proposed reformation around SNPs in Dubai to take into account the governance structure on the local and national levels, quality assurance measures, stakeholder engagement, and programs' intended outcomes and compositions. It proposes the enactment and maintenance of holistic, school-level healthy living programs that include nutrition as part of a more comprehensive approach to fostering the students' individual and collective wellbeing.
对于阿拉伯联合酋长国迪拜公立和私立学校中学校营养计划（SNPs）的实施情况，人们了解甚少。这凸显了深入了解SNPs具体情况的重要性，以便确保其在各学校有效、高效且公平地实施，无论这些学校是公立还是私立。
本研究的总体目的是深入了解迪拜的SNPs，并调查公立和私立部门中这些SNPs在特征上的差异。
本研究采用了定制的定量调查。使用SPSS对数据进行分析；描述性分析包括计算所有变量的比例。在推断性分析方面，选择独立性卡方检验来确定分类变量之间是否存在关联（即SNPs的各种特征，以及相应学校是公立还是私立）。
在受邀参与本研究的75位学校代表中，60位做出了回应，其中48位学校代表表示他们各自的学校有SNPs。这48个SNPs在实施范围和计划组成（即各项举措的组合）方面各不相同，包括家长参与、午餐盒、教育课程、饮水、宣传活动、学校食堂以及食品安全与卫生。参与制定和维护各自SNPs的利益相关者以及这些计划的预期成果在不同学校也存在差异。
本研究与可持续发展目标3、4、9和17相一致，强调了迪拜围绕SNPs进行的拟议改革要考虑地方和国家层面的治理结构、质量保证措施、利益相关者参与以及计划的预期成果和组成的重要性。它提议制定并维持全面的学校层面健康生活计划，将营养作为促进学生个人和集体福祉的更全面方法的一部分。
