School Meals in Denmark

NCT07389421 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: H-25070631
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 3,200
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

This study looks at how a national school meal program affects the health, well-being, and learning of Danish schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 years. The study is part of the Danish National School Meal Pilot Program (2025-2028), which provides free school meals at selected public schools. Some school classes receive free school meals, while other classes do not and are used for comparison. Children are followed for about 1.5 years. Information is collected before and after the program using simple health measurements, questionnaires about well-being, and age-appropriate cognitive tests. The study also uses information from Danish national registers to better understand the children's background and to study longer-term outcomes related to health, education, and social conditions. In addition, the study examines whether school meal programs are cost-effective by comparing their costs with potential benefits for children and society. The goal of the study is to find out whether free school meals can improve children's health, well-being, and learning, and help reduce social differences.

Conditions

Diet Habits; Childhood Obesity; Childhood Obesity Pevention; Well-being/Quality of Life; Cognitive Abilities; Healthy

Keywords

physical health; well-being; learning; diet

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Well-being/health related quality of life

  Between group difference in change in the total summary score of health-related quality of life measured with the KIDSCREEN 27 child self-report questionnaire. Data is collected using an adapted video and speech assisted electronic version with a smiley scale for each answer. The questionnaire assesses the child's physical well-being (5 items), psychological well-being (7 items), peers and social support (4 items), and school environment (4 items). Autonomy and parent relation (7 items) are not used.

  Baseline, 16-22 months

Secondary Outcomes (29)

• Psychological functioning

  Baseline, 16-22 months

• Internalizing problems

  Baseline, 16-22 months

• Externalizing problems

  Baseline, 16-22 months

• Prosocial Behavior

  Baseline, 16-22 months

• Psychological functioning (2)

  Baseline, 16-22 months

Study Arms (1)

Control classes

EXPERIMENTAL

The classes will continue with their regular meals, e.g. lunch packages

Behavioral: School meal classes

Interventions

School meal classes BEHAVIORAL

Natural experiment embedded within the Danish National School Meal Pilot Program (2025-2028), which offers free school meals to selected public schools. Children receive a free school-provided meal (typically lunch) five days per week. Meals vary across schools, as each school selects its own meal provider. All meals must comply with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations and the Danish Food-Based Dietary Guidelines, with a focus on fish, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, access to drinking water, and the promotion of children's food literacy.

Control classes

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 9 Years - 14 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• All children attending 3rd, 4th or 7th grade in the recruited schools

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Copenhagen: lead
• University of Southern Denmark: collaborator
• The Novo Nordic Foundation: collaborator

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Pediatric Obesity; Feeding Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

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

Study Officials

• Nikolai B Nordsborg, PhD

  University of Copenhagen

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Nikolai N Nordsborg, PhD

CONTACT

+4528751612; nbn@nexs.ku.dk

Paulina S Melby, PhD

CONTACT

+4527266039; paulina@nexs.ku.dk

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Model Details: This is a pragmatic, matched-pair, cluster-randomized study conducted as a natural experiment. Allocation to the school meal program is determined at the school and grade level by a national policy initiative and not by the investigators. Schools are matched in pairs based on socioeconomic and geographic characteristics. Within each matched pair, intervention effects are estimated by comparing classes at the same grade level across schools, where one school implements the school meal program and the matched school does not. Control classes are recruited pragmatically from the same schools at a different grade level than the intervention classes.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 28, 2026
• First Posted: February 5, 2026
• Study Start: February 11, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2029
• Last Updated: February 5, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01