Lunch is in the Bag: Helping Parents Increase Fruit, Vegetables, and Whole Grains in Preschool Sack Lunches

NCT01292434 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: LitB-UT-01
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,266
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Lunch is in the Bag is an intervention designed to increase fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches prepared for preschool children. Lunch is in the Bag includes 5 weeks of parent handouts, classroom activities related to topics in the handouts, parent and child activities to reinforce behavioral constructs, and a one week booster 22 weeks later. The primary study hypothesis is that Lunch is in the Bag will increase fruit, vegetables, and whole grains in sack lunches. Additional hypotheses are that lunches at child care centers where the program is used will have higher dietary quality than centers without the program and that children at the centers where the program is used will have a smaller increase in body mass index than children at centers with the program. The study will also look at the child's home environment and the childcare center. Hypotheses for this research question include

1. 1.Children at centers with Lunch is in the Bag will have greater frequency of eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains at home than those at centers without the program.
2. 2.Compared to parents at centers without the program, parents of children at centers with Lunch is in the Bag will have
3. 3.Greater knowledge, expected benefits, support, intentions, and belief in their ability for packing fruit, vegetables, and whole grain in their child's sack lunch daily.
4. 4.Availability of fruit, vegetable, and whole grain in the home pantry.
5. 5.Number of lunches with temperature in the safe range at time of service.

Conditions

Dietary Behavior

Keywords

Diet; Obesity; Child Preschool; Treatment Outcome; Body Mass Index; Intervention Studies; Randomized Controlled Trial; Child Day Care Centers; Schools Nursery; Child Care

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in fruit, vegetable, whole grain in the lunch sack from baseline to 6 weeks, 22 weeks, and 28 weeks

  Servings of fruit, vegetable, whole grain in the lunch sack

  Baseline, 6 weeks, 22 weeks, 28 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Nutrient evaluation of the lunch sack: change in nutrient contents from baseline to 6 weeks, 22 weeks, and 28 weeks

  baseline, 6 weeks 22 weeks, 28 weeks

• Increase in body mass index from baseline to 28 weeks

  baseline, 28 weeks

• Change in parental psychosocial variables from baseline to 6 weeks, 22 weeks, and 28 weeks

  baseline, 6 weeks, 22 weeks, 28 weeks

• Change in food availability at home from baseline to 6 weeks, 22 weeks, and 28 weeks

  baseline, 6 weeks, 22 weeks, 28 weeks

• Change in measured temperature of foods in the lunch sack from from baseline to 6 weeks, 22 weeks, and 28 weeks

  baseline, 6 weeks, 22 weeks, 28 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Lunch in the Bag Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Lunch is in the Bag behavioral intervention: Parents receive a behavioral intervention that includes handouts/newsletters sent to parents from the early care and education (ECE) center, classroom activities and projects, an implementation support calendar, and teacher training.

Behavioral: Lunch is in the Bag behavioral intervention

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Parents received no specific nutrition education intervention at the ECE center, other than usual practice.

Interventions

Lunch is in the Bag behavioral intervention BEHAVIORAL

Multi-component behavior-based activities, includes: parent handouts, teacher training, age-appropriate child classroom activities, parent/child activity stations

Also known as: Lunch is in the Bag, LiitB

Lunch in the Bag Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 60 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• One parent (or guardian)-child dyad per family
• The parent or guardian member of the dyad is the person primarily responsible for packing the child's lunch and is able to read English language materials written at the 6th grade level
• The child member of the dyad is age 3 to 5 and participates in daily care during a full day that includes the hours when children eat their lunch

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston: lead
• University of Texas at Austin: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus

Austin, Texas, 78701, United States

Location

Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Human Ecology, University of Texas at Austin

Austin, Texas, 78712, United States

Location

Related Publications (8)

• Briley ME, Ranjit N, Hoelscher DM, Sweitzer SJ, Almansour F, Roberts-Gray C. Unbundling outcomes of a multilevel intervention to increase fruit, vegetables, and whole grains parents pack for their preschool children in sack lunches. Am J Health Educ. 2012 May;43(3):135-142. doi: 10.1080/19325037.2012.10599230. Epub 2012 May 1.

  PMID: 23243631 BACKGROUND

• Sweitzer SJ, Ranjit N, Calloway EE, Hoelscher DM, Almansor F, Briley ME, Roberts-Gray CR. Examining How Adding a Booster to a Behavioral Nutrition Intervention Prompts Parents to Pack More Vegetables and Whole Gains in Their Preschool Children's Sack Lunches. Behav Med. 2016;42(1):9-17. doi: 10.1080/08964289.2014.935283. Epub 2014 Oct 10.

  PMID: 24971674 BACKGROUND

• Sweitzer SJ, Byrd-Williams CE, Ranjit N, Romo-Palafox MJ, Briley ME, Roberts-Gray CR, Hoelscher DM. Development of a Method to Observe Preschoolers' Packed Lunches in Early Care and Education Centers. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015 Aug;115(8):1249-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2015.03.012. Epub 2015 May 12.

  PMID: 25975458 BACKGROUND

• Sharma SV, Rashid T, Ranjit N, Byrd-Williams C, Chuang RJ, Roberts-Gray C, Briley M, Sweitzer S, Hoelscher DM. Effectiveness of the Lunch is in the Bag program on communication between the parent, child and child-care provider around fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods: A group-randomized controlled trial. Prev Med. 2015 Dec;81:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.07.005. Epub 2015 Jul 17.

  PMID: 26190371 RESULT

• Romo-Palafox MJ, Ranjit N, Sweitzer SJ, Roberts-Gray C, Hoelscher DM, Byrd-Williams CE, Briley ME. Dietary Quality of Preschoolers' Sack Lunches as Measured by the Healthy Eating Index. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015 Nov;115(11):1779-88. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2015.05.017. Epub 2015 Jul 17.

  PMID: 26190228 RESULT

• Roberts-Gray C, Briley ME, Ranjit N, Byrd-Williams CE, Sweitzer SJ, Sharma SV, Palafox MR, Hoelscher DM. Efficacy of the Lunch is in the Bag intervention to increase parents' packing of healthy bag lunches for young children: a cluster-randomized trial in early care and education centers. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2016 Jan 8;13:3. doi: 10.1186/s12966-015-0326-x.

  PMID: 26746876 RESULT

• Romo-Palafox MJ, Ranjit N, Sweitzer SJ, Roberts-Gray C, Byrd-Williams CE, Briley ME, Hoelscher DM. Adequacy of Parent-Packed Lunches and Preschooler's Consumption Compared to Dietary Reference Intake Recommendations. J Am Coll Nutr. 2017 Mar-Apr;36(3):169-176. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2016.1240634. Epub 2017 Jan 12.

  PMID: 28080325 DERIVED

• Roberts-Gray C, Sweitzer SJ, Ranjit N, Potratz C, Rood M, Romo-Palafox MJ, Byrd-Williams CE, Briley ME, Hoelscher DM. Structuring Process Evaluation to Forecast Use and Sustainability of an Intervention: Theory and Data From the Efficacy Trial for Lunch Is in the Bag. Health Educ Behav. 2017 Aug;44(4):559-569. doi: 10.1177/1090198116676470. Epub 2016 Nov 17.

  PMID: 27864471 DERIVED

Related Links

• Project Website

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Obesity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Deanna M Hoelscher, PhD

  The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Margaret E. Briley, PhD

  University of Texas at Austin

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Cindy R. Roberts-Gray, PhD

  Third Coast Research & Development, Inc.

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor - School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 3, 2011
• First Posted: February 9, 2011
• Study Start: June 1, 2008
• Primary Completion: May 1, 2013
• Study Completion: May 1, 2013
• Last Updated: November 10, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (2)