FoodACT: Investigating the Impact of a School Garden Intervention on Children's Food Literacy, Climate Literacy, School Motivation and Physical Activity

NCT05839080 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: NFF22SH0077522
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 990
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a schoolgarden intervention on pupils food literacy, climate literacy, schoolmotivation and physical activity. The study will also investigate the contextual characteristics in the garden using systematic observations and the pupil´s experience of the intervention with focus-groups interviews.

Conditions

Physical Inactivity; Literacy; Motivation

Keywords

School; Physical activity; Outdoor; School garden; Motivation; Food literacy; Climate literacy; Education; Health Promotion

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Physical activity (PA)

  Physical activity will be measured with Sens Motion accelerometers or with Axivity® AX3 accelerometer as described above. The primary outcomes are pupils' physical activity i.e., sedentary behaviour (SED), light physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Using Sens motion all acceleration data will be processed and transferred into a secure web server via the smartphone. Based on the sensor's orientation (axes) and acceleration, a predefined algorithm categorises the measurements in predefined behaviour activities, e.g., sitting, lying down, standing, walking, cycling and number of steps. In addition, a categorisation of intensity levels is predefined e.g., moderate, and high physical activity.

  9 months

• Food literacy (FL)

  FL will be measured using the Food Literacy Quesionare designed for school children (FLQ-sc; (Stjernqvist, Elsborg, et al., 2021). The questionnaire is developed and validate to school children in 6th and 7th grade (aged 12-14). It's a 37 item questionnaire used to access individual FL which is based on Benn 2014 five FL competencies: "to know, "to do", "to sense", "to care" and "to want". Measured two times in 2024 where change is being assesed.

  9 months

• Climate Literacy (CL)

  CL will be measured based on a Climate Litercy Quesionare (Dewaters et.al. 2011), which will be modified and adapted during the pilot-study targeting the right age-group. Measured two times in 2024 where change is being assesed.

  9 months

• School motivation (SM)

  School motivation (SM) will be measured using the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (called SRQ-A). The SRQ-A is a domain-specific self-report questionnaire developed for measuring the level of autonomy relative to doing different types of schoolwork among pupils in late primary and lower-secondary school. Measured two times in 2024 where change is being assesed.

  9 months

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Systematic observations with PARAGON

  9 months

• Focus-group interviews

  9 months

Study Arms (2)

Intervention schools

EXPERIMENTAL

Pupils are exposed to the schoolgarden intervention eight times during two school years

Behavioral: Gardens to Bellis

Control Schools

EXPERIMENTAL

Pupils are not exposed to the interventions and will complete questionaries

Behavioral: No intervention

Interventions

Gardens to Bellis BEHAVIORAL

In FoodACT the school garden intervention that will be investigated is the well described and well-developed intervention called Gardens to Bellis. It involves pupils from 4th-5th grade and their teachers. The classes attend 8 school garden sessions distributed across two school years. The sessions start each year in March and ends in November. Pupils are divided into smaller groups, who gets a plot of which they are responsible for preparing, weed and harvest. The purpose is that pupils can cook their own food with the greens, fruits and berries they harvest in the garden and finds in the nature. The pupils and their families will hatch and harvest the school gardens between the session days.

Also known as: FoodACT

Intervention schools

No intervention BEHAVIORAL

Pupils are not receiving any intervention

Control Schools

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 9 Years - 13 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• th-5th grade school classes in Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools participating in the 'Gardens to Bellis' intervention.
• Classes not involved in other school development or research projects.
• Participants with parents (or legal guardian) having provided written informed consent.

You may not qualify if:

• Pupils with significant health problems as judged by the investigators will be excluded from the analysis (Sub-study 1-3).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Center for Clinical Research and Prevention: lead
• University of Copenhagen: collaborator
• Haver til Maver: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Center for Clinical Research and Prevention

Frederiksberg, Capital Region, 2000, Denmark

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Stage A, Vermund MC, Bolling M, Otte CR, Oest Mullertz AL, Bentsen P, Nielsen G, Elsborg P. The impact of a school garden program on children's food literacy, climate change literacy, school motivation, and physical activity: A study protocol. PLoS One. 2025 Apr 24;20(4):e0320574. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320574. eCollection 2025.

  PMID: 40273231 DERIVED

Related Links

• FoodACT website

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Sedentary Behavior; Literacy; Motor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior; Communication

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Masking Details: It is not possible to mask the participants since they are signed up for the Gardens to Bellis intervention.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: NETWORK
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: The study has two different participant samples. In Sub-Study 1 the participants are pupils from 4th-5th grade from Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools attending the 'Gardens to Bellis' intervention (intervention group) and pupils from 4th-5th grade from Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools not attending the 'Gardens to Bellis' intervention. In Sub-Study 2 and Sub-Study 3, the participant sample is a subsample of the intervention sample in SS1. The participants are pupil's 4th-5th grade (n=540) from 30 Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 10, 2023
• First Posted: May 3, 2023
• Study Start: September 1, 2023
• Primary Completion: November 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Last Updated: January 15, 2025

Record last verified: 2024-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Anonymised participant-level data will be made available on the Open Science Framework five years after the main publication of this study. Statistical plan, study protocol and analytical code will be made available in the osf folder upon acceptance of first preregistered manuscript.
• Access Criteria: Data can be made available upon reasonable request to the PI such as e.g. verification of the research results.

Locations

DK (1)