This research project investigated the influences of a supermarket intervention on the food choices of parents and their children. Twenty-four families (11 experimental; 13 control) participated in this study. They used the NLS weekly when they completed their major shopping. The NLS was a public access, interactive information system located in the supermarket which provided users with information and feedback about how to decrease fat and increase fiber in their food purchases. During the intervention, participants in the experimental condition viewed a different videodisc program each week. In addition, they were able to enter their intended shopping purchases for each weekly shopping, and receive feedback about the items they intended to purchase. Control participants entered their intended purchases, but received no information or feedback. All participants sent in their detailed supermarket receipts. The NLS phases included baseline, intervention, and follow up. Families with children ages 8-15 years were recruited for the family study. Participants were interviewed pre- and post-assessment. One target child was selected from each family. The main family study measures were the Card Sorting Task (CST) and the Food History Questionnaire (FHQ). The CST used pictures of food items. The FHQ was used to evaluate the usual diet over one month. The CST task was analyzed with a Wilcoxon test; the FHQ task was analyzed with an ANCOVA, using the pre-assessment score as the covariate. The results indicated that experimental participants reported an increase in their consumption of low-fat dairy products and low-fat fruit (FHQ data). In addition, experimental participants reported a decrease in their behavior, preference and knowledge for high-fat snacks and and high-fat entrees (CST data). The results suggested that parents and their children may be positively affected by a public-access interactive videodisc information system directed to parent use. Overall, the results provided some evidence that parents who are involved in a nutrition intervention also will influence their children's food choices. Future research should further evaluate the effects of the intervention on different food categories and continue to investigate how changes in certain food choices affect other choices. Variables relating to health beliefs, types of foods to change, meal preparations, family characteristics, and behavior strategies all must be considered in future intervention programming. / Ph. D.

The relationship of meal planners' nutrition attitudes and knowledge to their fat and fiber intakes and to the intakes of 2-5 year-old children in their households were examined using data from USDA's 1989-91 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) and corresponding Diet and Health Knowledge Survey (DHKS). Selected households (N=478) provided 24-hour diet recalls. Data on meal planners' attitudes and knowledge were used to create variables that represented the constructs of a modified Health Belief Model. The relationships of these variables to the percent of calories from fat and to fiber density of foods consumed at home and of total food consumed by meal planners and children were analyzed using multiple regression. Several of the attitude-knowledge variables were significantly related to meal planners' fat and fiber intakes. The variables did not have a significantly different relationship with children's intakes, except for taste which was inversely related to children's fiber intakes. Although the relationship of meal planners' attitudes and knowledge was not significantly different with children's intakes than with meal planners' intakes, the constructs were not significantly related either, except for knowledge which was significantly related to less at-home fat consumption by children. Results indicate weak support for the gatekeeper theory; meal planners' nutrition knowledge and attitudes appear more operational in their diets than in the diets of their young children. / Master of Science

Twenty "normal" (non-hyperactive) preschool children (9 girls, 11 boys) and 6 schoolage boys were maintained on a low sucrose diet for two weeks. During the second week, subjects were randomly assigned to one of two treatments (drink sweetened with either sucrose or aspartame). Cherry-flavored drinks mixed in a distilled water base were given daily. Subjects in the sucrose group received 3.4 g sucrose per kilogram of body weight, mixed to a concentration of 25 g per 100 ml. Subjects in the aspartame group received the same cherry-flavored drink mixed to a concentration of 8 g of aspartame per 100 ml of drink. A simple reaction-time task measured attention and alertness three times during the study: (1) prior to the low sucrose diet; (2) after one week of the low sucrose diet; (3) after one week of receiving the treatment. The dependent variable was the difference between reaction time at time 3 (after treatment) and time 2 (at the end of one week of a low sucrose diet). An ANCOVA (2 levels of treatment, age as covariate) revealed no significant difference in the mean reaction times of the subjects in the sucrose and aspartame groups. However, the variance in reaction times for those in the sucrose treatment group was significantly greater (p̱< .03) than for those in the aspartame group. / Master of Science

Mothercraft, or Nutritional Rehabilitation, Centers have been instituted throughout the Third World, in order to alleviate malnutrition in preschool populations. Analysis of Centers, however, is complicated by problems with evaluative methods. There is controversy over the best measure of a child's nutritional status, while confusion has also arisen from the use of static methods for dynamic data. And this author noted that maintenance of any certain Percent Standard Weight (PSW) is often wrongly interpreted as a 100 Percent Standard Weight Gain. From 1964 through 1969, when the Center in Fond Parisien was operating, agricultural improvement programs were also being conducted there. Improvements seen in the nutritional survey could not, therefore, be credited to any single program. The community child health survey indicated that the health of the preschool children who never attended the Center worsened during this period. But both surveys were subject to sampling bias, and no clear conclusions could be drawn. Fond Parisien Center data indicated initial age and PSW as statistically significant influences on the percentage points a child gained in his PSW (percent gain). Regression equations based on these two variables were found to predict the percent gain after three and four months in the Center. Indications from this data are that most children do not profit in their percent gain from a fourth month in the Center. Follow-up data was inconclusive. Comparisons between non-Center and Center children indicated no long-term benefits of the Center. Detailed long-range study of a few Centers is needed. / Master of Science

The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a public health intervention targeted to reach a high risk pregnant population in order to promote beneficial effects on pregnancy outcome. The ultimate goal of this research was to examine the pregnancy outcomes, relative to selected biological, socio-demographic and nutritional risk variables, of pregnant women enrolled in the Virginia WIC Program. The study proposed that duration of WIC participation is associated with improved pregnancy outcomes, including higher infant birth weight, a decrease in low birth weight (LBW) and decreased incidences of prematurity, neonatal mortality and abnormal births. Nutritional and non-nutritional risk variables and birth outcomes were examined in 2,133 pregnant women enrolled in the Virginia WIC Program from December 1, 1984 to September 30, 1985. A WIC Pregnant Women Tracking Form was the designed instrument utilized by staff at health department clinic sites to record the data at time of program entry. Duration of participation in WIC was calculated by weeks and stratified into three groups by months (or trimesters) of participation. Results indicated that this subject population was demographically and nutritionally at higher risk for poor pregnancy outcomes. Stratification by demographic subpopulations showed the most vulnerable may be those prenatal subjects less than 18 years of age, and of black racial/ethnic status. Statistical analyses between the duration of indicated a positive correlation participation, especially when in the WIC Program and pregnancy birth weight, LBW, and birth stratified by trimester, outcome described by complications. It was concluded that for this high risk group of prenatal subjects, increased participation in the WIC Program is associated with enhanced pregnancy outcomes. While these findings suggest that birth weight and birth outcome differences are a function of WIC participation, other related factors may be basis for this causal effect. / M.S.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1. to determine whether or not certain poster presentations affect the food acceptance of elementary school children, and 2. to determine which method of presenting a poster had the most affect upon the child's food acceptance.

In this study, an appraisal of the nutritional status of eighty-eight school children has been made, using the Wetzel Index with the Baldwin-Wood Index and the Pryor Index for the determinations.

The problem of this investigation was to survey the noon-meal vegetable consumption of 248 elementary-school children in the J. M. Lindsay School, Gainesville, Texas, for a period of ten days, and to compile lists of the vegetables which the children indicated that they liked or disliked.

The present study was made in an attempt to determine what contributions the mid-morning feeding and the noon meal served children in a nursery school make toward the day's total intake of vitamin C and vitamin A.

Aim: To determine whether the tuck shop purchasing habits of Grade 4 learners were contributing towards the development of childhood overweight and obesity. Objectives: To assess the nutritional quality of the food and beverages available for learners to purchase; items regularly purchased from the tuck shop as well as factors influencing the learner’s decision to purchase these items; the anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics of grade 4 learners as well as their nutrition knowledge related to the tuck shop items purchased. Method: A survey administered to 11 tuck shop managers, a questionnaire administered to 311 Grade 4 learners and two single-sex focus groups of 5 learners each were conducted. Results: Fifty six percent of the sample were female (n=173) and 44% were male (n=138). Twenty seven percent of the study sample was overweight (n = 83) and 27% were obese (n = 85). Eighty six percent of learners (n = 266) claimed to buy from their school tuck shop. Twenty two percent of learners purchased from their tuck shop at least three times per week (n =58). Learners who purchased from the tuck shop had a significantly higher BMI than those who did not (p = 0.020). Learners who purchased from the tuck shop spent on average R8,38 per day with a minimum of R1 and a maximum of R40 (standard deviation R5.39). The most popular reasons for visiting the tuck shop included “this is my favourite thing to eat or drink” (66.5%, n = 177) and “I only have enough money to buy this item” (47.0%, n = 125). Savoury pies were the most popular "lunch" item for all learners for both food breaks (45%, n = 5 schools and 27.3%, n = 3 schools) selling the most number of units (43) per day at eight of the eleven schools (72.7%). Iced popsicles were sold at almost every school, ranked as the cheapest beverage and also sold the most number of units (40.7). Healthy beverages sold included canned fruit juice and water, while healthy snacks consisted of dried fruit, fruit salad, bananas, yoghurt and health muffins. The average healthy snack contained almost half the kilojoules of its unhealthy counterpart (465kJ vs 806kJ). Nutritional analyses of the healthy lunch options revealed total fat contents that exceeded the DRI and South African recommended limit. Perceived barriers to stocking healthy items included cost and refrigeration restrictions. The average score for the food groups was only 33% indicating that learners were not familiar with the Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG). Further analyses showed that the total knowledge scores of those learners that reported to buy from the tuck shop frequently, was significantly lower when compared to the total knowledge scores of those learners who bought from the tuck shop less frequently (13.0 ± 3.9 and 11.6 ± 3.1, respectively; p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis confirmed that the total knowledge of a learner could be used to predict whether he or she is more likely to make purchases from the tuck shop (significance = 0.017). Focus group results revealed that learners are aware of “healthy” and “unhealthy” tuck shop items. Most learners stated that they would continue to purchase items from their tuck shop if all “unhealthy” items were removed. Conclusion: Primary school tuck shops of well resourced schools in Pietermaritzburg are contributing to childhood overweight and obesity through a combination of factors. These include the poor nutritional quality of the items stocked at the tuck shop as well as the poor tuck shop purchasing practices. Much consultation is required amongst dieticians, school principals and privatised tuck shop managers to overcome barriers to stocking healthy items. School management and government have an important role to play in imposing restrictions on the sale of unhealthy items; along with improving the quality of the nutrition education curriculum to ensure that learners are able to translate their knowledge into healthier purchasing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.