Children Learn, Children Do! Results of the “Planning Health in School”, a Behavioural Change Programme

Margarida Vieira and Graça S. Carvalho
Additional contact information
Margarida Vieira: Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
Graça S. Carvalho: Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: The ‘Planning Health in School’ programme (PHS-pro) is a behavioural change intervention to assess and improve the eating habits of children, particularly the intake of fruit and vegetables, and to guide them towards healthy choices. The programme and its educational components are based on the Transtheoretical Model of stages of change to integrate nutritional literacy and build up problem-solving and decision-making skills. Children ( n = 240, ages 10–12) of one large suburban school in Porto’s metropolitan area (Portugal) were evaluated throughout PHS-pro implementation during one school year in a repeated time–series design. Children’s outcome evaluations were conducted through seven 3-day food records for nine eating behaviour, documented after each learning module and through participatory activities which analysed attitudes, preferences and expectations. Changes were observed in children’s eating behaviour, supported by changes in motivation as perceived in their attitudes and expectations. Significant changes were found in a higher consumption of vegetable soup ( p = 0.003), milk products ( p = 0.024), and fruit ( p = 0.008), while the consumption of high-energy dense food ( p = 0.048) and soft drinks ( p = 0.042) significantly decreased. No positive effects on fried food, water, vegetables and bread consumption were found. The PHS-pro intervention proved to be effective in developing healthy eating behaviour in young people.

Keywords: health promotion; health education; Transtheoretical model; eating behaviour; obesity prevention; children’s health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9872/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9872/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9872-:d:639094

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().