Promoting Vegetable Intake in Preschool Aged Children

NCT ID: NCT03003923

Last Updated: 2018-01-09

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 140 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2016-09-30
• Study Completion Date: 2017-08-31

Brief Summary

The aim of this cluster randomised control trial is to test the efficacy of a repeated taste exposure intervention, a nutritional educational intervention and combination of both to increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in preschool aged children (aged 3-5 years).

Detailed Description

The aim of this study is to test the efficacy of a repeated taste exposure intervention, a nutritional educational intervention and combination of both to increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in preschool aged children (aged 3-5 years). In particular the study will assess whether these strategies are effective to encourage intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in children who are fussy eaters or going through the food neophobia phase. The effectiveness of these interventions will also be observed overtime at 3 and 6 months post intervention.

Nurseries will be randomised into one of four conditions over the 12 week intervention period; these include educational intervention only, taste exposures only, taste exposures and educational intervention or no intervention (control group). All children will be offered an unfamiliar vegetable prior to the intervention and after the intervention to evaluate changes in intake of the unfamiliar vegetable. The repeated taste exposure groups will be offered the novel vegetable repeatedly (1 exposure per week) over the 12 week period. For the educational intervention nursery staff will be advised to deliver two components of an existing PhunkyFoods educational programme over the same period.

Parents will be asked some general demographic questions, child food behaviour questions and questions about their feeding practices. Finally nursery staff will be requested to provide feedback to evaluate intervention feasibility, barriers and efficacy.

It is predicted that children's intake of the unfamiliar vegetable will vary by intervention. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that children who receive the repeated taste exposures are more likely to increase their intake of the unfamiliar vegetable compared to those in educational only or control conditions. The second hypothesis is that repeated taste exposures will increase intake of an unfamiliar vegetable in fussy eaters more than education.

Conditions

Food Habits; Food Preferences; Behavior; Health Behavior

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Taste Exposure

Children will be repeatedly offered the single vegetable which is unfamiliar to them over the 12 week period. Children will be in their natural setting at nursery and will be offered 40g of the vegetable by their usual nursery staff. The vegetable will be weighed before and after using a digital scale by the researcher.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Taste exposure

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Exposure to the same vegetable

Nutritional Education

Nursery staff will be trained by the PhunkyFoods team to deliver the nutritional education programme. Children will be taught Eat Well (learning about different food groups) and Strive for Five (learning about eating fruits and vegetables) components of the PhunkyFoods education programme by their usual nursery staff. Nurseries will be advised to deliver as much as possible of the two components over the 12 week period.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Nutritional education

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eat Well and Strive for Five nutritional education

Taste Exposure and Nutritional Education

Children will be repeatedly offered a single unfamiliar vegetable over the 12 week period as well as receive the PhunkyFoods educational programme (Eat Well and Strive for Five components). Children will be in their natural setting at nursery and will be offered the vegetable and nutritional education by their usual nursery staff.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Taste exposure

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Exposure to the same vegetable

Nutritional education

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eat Well and Strive for Five nutritional education

Control

Children will be offered single unfamiliar vegetable at the beginning, end and at the follow-up. There will be no repeated taste exposure or education during the study phase or follow-up; they will be offered the nutritional education after the study has completed.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Taste exposure

Exposure to the same vegetable

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Nutritional education

Eat Well and Strive for Five nutritional education

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 2 to 5 years old
• Attends nursery on selected test day

Exclusion Criteria

• Relevant food allergy (mooli / radish)
• Medical condition which would prevent them from eating the test vegetable

• Minimum Eligible Age: 2 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 5 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Purely Nutrition Ltd

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Leeds

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Chandani Nekitsing

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Chandani Nekitsing, MSc

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Leeds

Locations

School of Psychology, University of Leeds

Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Countries

United Kingdom

Other Identifiers

Chandani Nekitsing

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id