Avaliação do impacto de uma intervenção de promoção de frutas e hortaliças sobre o consumo desses alimentos por alunos e professores de escolas públicas

Abstract

The consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V) has been encouraged in several countries as a measure of preventing chronic diseases being the school a privileged space for the promotion of these foods. This study aims to evaluate the impact of an intervention focused on the promotion of F&V on the consumption of these foods among students and teachers of public schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. This was a before-and-after evaluation study that involved students enrolled in the first cycle of primary schools in eight municipal units located in territories covered by the Family Health Strategy. In the baseline schools activities on healthy diet promotion and teachers s usual F&V intake were registered. The school environment and the students consumption of F&V delivered by the School Feeding Program were also observed. The intervention included a training course for teachers and school s cooks to promote healthy diet, with emphasis on F&V promotion; distribution of educational materials and carrying out mobilization events. Questions related to the intervention strategies intervention assessment were included in the pos-intervention assessment. Indicators of coverage of the activities, of intensity of exposure to the intervention, of adherence to school food program, of F&V acceptance and consumption by the students and F&V consumption by teachers, of variation in F&H acceptance (students) and consumption (students and teachers) as well as indicators that synthesized the delivery of the intervention were created. The observed variations were statistically tested using the paired Student t test (for means) or chi square McNemar (for proportions). The possible influence of the level of implementation of the intervention on the F&V acceptance and consumption was examined by using linear regression or logistic regression models, depending on the outcome. High levels of F&V acceptance among students and F&V consumption among students and teachers at the initial diagnosis have been observed. The intervention reached 52,7% of implementation, being well evaluated among teachers. No statistically significant variation was observed after the intervention for both F&V acceptance and consumption. Significant results were observed only for the positive association between level of exposure to the intervention and vegetable acceptance by students. The proposed intervention achieved an intermediate level of implementation and the results were modest in terms of variation of F&V consumption among students and teachers.