Technology and Design Innovation for School Lunch

Childhood Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title:

Technology and Design Innovation to Support 21st Century School Nutrition

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02467816
• Other study ID #: 2014-12-7010
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 2016
• Est. completion date: June 2018

Study information

• Verified date: May 2019
• Source: University of California, Berkeley
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study will evaluate an innovative school lunch intervention that is designed to increase school meal participation and improve dietary intake among middle and high school students.

Description:

Improving dietary intake among low-income youth is critical to reducing obesity, and schools are arguably the most important system in which to intervene. In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to better align school meal standards with the Dietary Guidelines, making school meals a nutritious option for students. Increasing participation in the school meal program, therefore, especially among low-income youth, has the potential to improve dietary intake among students and ultimately reduce childhood obesity.

Over three school years, the University of California (Berkeley's School of Public Health and the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources' Nutrition Policy Institute) will evaluate an innovative, student-centered school-lunch intervention to increase school lunch participation and improve dietary intake among low-income middle and high school students. The project will be conducted in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), a large and diverse urban district serving over 32,000 students (70% of total) eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The intervention, developed in partnership with the global design firm IDEO, aims to promote healthier habits by leveraging principals of behavior economics. The intervention involves the following three components: 1) a smartphone application (SmartMeal) that allows students to pre-order school lunches, receive nutrition information about school lunch options, and provide feedback about meals to food service staff, 2) distributed points of sale for school meals, achieved through the addition of mobile food carts and vending machines, and 3) a staff wellness curriculum that encourages staff to promote school meals and model healthful eating behaviors to students.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 27406
• Est. completion date: June 2018
• Est. primary completion date: June 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• All 7th-10th grade students at participating schools are eligible to participate in the student survey

• All 6th-12th grade students who eat the school lunch are eligible to participate in plate waste data collection

• All 7th-10th grade teachers are eligible to participate in the teacher survey

Exclusion Criteria:

• There are no exclusion criteria

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Childhood Obesity
• Pediatric Obesity

Intervention

Behavioral:
• SmartMeal application
The SmartMeal application is a smartphone application that will allow students to pre-order school meals, receive nutrition information about school meals, and provide feedback about school meals to Student Nutrition Services.
• Distributed points of sale
To increase points of sale for school meals (outside the cafeteria), school meals will be sold at hot and cold mobile food carts and vending machines throughout the school.
• Staff wellness curriculum
A wellness curriculum will be implemented that encourages teachers and staff members to eat school meals and promote them to students.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Academy High School and Ruth Asawa School of the Arts	San Francisco	California
United States	AP Giannini Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Aptos Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Balboa High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Burton High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Everett Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Francisco Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Galileo High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Herbert Hoover Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	James Denman Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	James Lick Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	John O'Connell High School	San Francisco	California
United States	June Jordan High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Lincoln High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Lowell High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Marina Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Marshall High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Martin Luther King Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Mission High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Presidio Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Roosevelt Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Visitacion Valley Middle School	San Francisco	California
United States	Wallenberg High School	San Francisco	California
United States	Washington High School	San Francisco	California

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of California, Berkeley	University of California

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in school lunch participation	Daily school lunch participation records broken down by grade, gender, and free or reduced-price meal eligibility at each school.	2 years
Secondary	Change in plate waste during lunch among students who eat school lunch	Individual-level waste of food components achieved through visual estimation and aggregate waste of food components achieved through weighing.	2 school years
Secondary	Change in fruit consumption at lunch	Student survey that asks about fruits consumed at lunch yesterday	2 school years
Secondary	Change in vegetable consumption at lunch	Student survey that asks about vegetables consumed at lunch yesterday	2 school years
Secondary	Change in weekly fruit consumption	Student survey that asks about fruits consumed during a typical week	2 school years
Secondary	Change in weekly vegetable consumption	Student survey that asks about vegetables consumed during a typical week	2 school years
Secondary	Change in variety of fruits consumed by students at lunch	Student survey that asks about fruits consumed at lunch yesterday	2 school years
Secondary	Change in variety of vegetables consumed by students at lunch	Student survey that asks about vegetables consumed at lunch yesterday	2 school years
Secondary	Change in variety of fruits consumed by students each week	Student survey that asks about fruits consumed during a typical week	2 school years
Secondary	Change in variety of vegetables consumed by students each week	Student survey that asks about vegetables consumed during a typical week	2 school years
Secondary	Change in body mass index (index)	BMI data collected each year on 7th and 9th grade students via the California Physical Fitness Test	2 school years