N09008: Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children - the development and evaluation of a school-based intervention using art/play therapy

Study Duration: September 1998 to November 2001

Contractor: The University of Sheffield

This project used arts/play therapy to alter children's relationship to fruit and vegetables.

The objectives of this project were:

• By accessing children's creative and group processes through arts/play therapy, to alter their relationship to fruit and vegetables.
• To investigate if changes as outlined in 1 (altering feelings towards fruit and vegetables) could change consumption of fruit and vegetables.

A multidisciplinary arts/play programme to alter the learning environment of schoolchildren was carried out. Changing attitudes and feelings towards fruit and vegetables was the focus of the proposed programme. The programme took a whole school approach, all classes were involved at different levels. The programme covered a series of areas including, words/ language/ drama/ film/ photography/ sculpture/ music/ dance.

The evaluation of the intervention was carried out by collecting four day estimated dietary records pre and post intervention. All children in the school were asked to participate. The frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption was calculated.

The project aimed to develop and evaluate an art/play therapy intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in primary school aged children by changing children's attitudes to fruit and vegetables through a programme of art, drama, poetry, literature, music and dance.

The researchers reported that:

• The art /play intervention was successful in substantially increasing children's consumption of fruit, vegetables, salad and fruit juice;
• the intervention was most successful in changing fruit, vegetable and salad consumption among a group of children who ate no fruit at the start of the study;
• The changes observed in food intake also had beneficial effects on nutrient intake.
  There were decreases in intake of saturated fat, and increases in a number of health-promoting vitamins and minerals;
• The researchers also proposed that the success of the art/play learning program in altering children's food choice should support the introduction of these learning methods into the usual school curriculum.

These results should be treated with caution since the intervention had to be shortened and dietary assessments had to be postponed until 9 months after the end of the intervention. The intervention was carried out in only one school, which acted as its own control. Therefore, since evaluation of the intervention was delayed, it was not posasible to determine whether the positive effects noted by the researchers were due to the intervention or to other unknown factors.

Final report is available from the FSA Library and Information centre. To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Dr. Elsie Widdowson Library and Information Services, Food Standards Agency (020 7276 8181/8182 or at library&info@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk).

Contact: Dr Jenny Woolfe
Tel: 020 7276 8914 (Intl. +44 (0) 20 7276 8914)
Email: jenny.woolfe@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk