Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods: Evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam

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dc.creatorNguyen, Trang
dc.creatorde Brauw, Alan
dc.creatorvan den Berg, Marrit
dc.creatorPhuong Ha, Do Thi
dc.date2020-05-01
dc.date2024-05-22T12:14:49Z
dc.date2024-05-22T12:14:49Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:19:44Z
dc.descriptionSchools are an attractive entry point to improve children’s diets, as their eating habits can be shaped during childhood and the information disseminated from school can reach adults through children. We implemented a cluster-randomized trial in 12 schools in peri-urban Viet Nam to assess if two school-based interventions increased knowledge of healthy diets among children and their parents, as well as children’s consumption of healthy foods. First, children were given lessons about food before school lunch and encouraged to share the lessons with their parents. Second, children were provided with healthy snacks for five weeks to reinforce messages about healthy eating. We found that in the short term, the nutrition lessons raised the knowledge index score of the children by 0.35 standard deviation. After six months, this intervention retained its effectiveness only for the children who also received free access to fruit, emphasizing the linkage between knowledge and practice. By itself, free access to fruit at school increased the children’s daily fruit consumption by half a portion, but not at the expense of home fruit consumption. Access to healthy foods at school can therefore be an effective measure to raise children’s healthy consumption. Child-parent communication was not a reliable channel for knowledge dissemination in our setting.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/143521
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/101251
dc.languageen
dc.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Institute
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133156
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134319
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134565
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293670_06
dc.relationhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/160017
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceNguyen, Trang; de Brauw, Alan; van den Berg, Marrit; and Phuong Ha, Do Thi. 2020. Testing methods to increase consumption of healthy foods: Evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1939. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133777.
dc.subjecthealth foods
dc.subjectchild nutrition
dc.subjecthealth
dc.subjectschool feeding
dc.subjecthealthy diets
dc.subjectschoolchildren
dc.subjectnutrition education
dc.subjectnutrition
dc.subjectfood consumption
dc.subjectdiet
dc.titleTesting methods to increase consumption of healthy foods: Evidence from a school-based field experiment in Viet Nam
dc.typeWorking Paper

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)