The Impact of an Intervention Taught by Trained Teachers on Childhood BMI z Score

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of a six months nutrition intervention, delivered and taught by classroom teachers with in-service nutrition training, on the prevention of overweight and obesity among children in grades 1 to 4.

In this randomized controlled trial, 464 children from seven elementary schools were allocated to a six months nutrition educational intervention by their own teachers or to standard care. Intervened teachers had 12 sessions of three hours each with the researchers throughout six months, according to the following topics: nutrition and healthy eating (sessions 1 to 4); the importance of drinking water (session 5); strategies to encourage fruits and vegetables consumption and to decrease high energy-density foods intake (sessions 6 to 8); strategies to increase physical activity (sessions 9 and 10); and healthy cooking activities (sessions 11 and 12). After each session, teachers were encouraged to develop activities in class that focused on the learned topics. Sociodemographic, anthropometric, dietary, and physical activity assessments were performed at baseline and the end of intervention.

We expect that fewer intervened children become overweight and the consumption of fruit and vegetables will be higher. In addition, we expect a less consumption of low-nutrition high dense foods.

We also expect to provide further support to decrease overweight epidemic, involving classroom teachers in a training intervention and making them dedicated interventionists.