A Randomized Controlled Trial of Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX)

Boston Children's Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Students for Nutrition and eXercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01914471

R24MD001648

Details and patient eligibility

About

Objectives: We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX), a middle-school-based obesity-prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, multimedia, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education and marketing.

Methods: We randomly selected schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and assigned five to the intervention group and five to a wait-list control group. School records were obtained for number of fruits and vegetables served, students served lunch, and snacks sold per attending student. Pre- and post-intervention surveys assessed psychosocial variables among 2,997 seventh-graders (75% of all seventh-graders across schools).

Hypotheses: For the RCT of SNaX, we hypothesized that SNaX would lead to increases in the proportion of students served in the cafeteria (because SNaX markets cafeterias' healthy foods); increased fruit and vegetable servings (because SNaX increases access to sliced/bite-sized fruits and vegetables); decreased school store snack sales; and greater water consumption. We also hypothesized that SNaX would lead to more positive attitudes about the cafeteria and water, improve obesity-prevention knowledge, and increase intentions to drink water.

Enrollment: 2,997 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• schools with >50% NSLP-eligible students (a proxy for low-income) and <900 - seventh-graders

Exclusion criteria

• schools with <50% NSLP-eligible students and >900 seventh-graders

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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2,997 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

These schools did not receive the intervention.

Students for Nutrition and eXercise

Experimental group

Description:

These schools received the entirety of Students for Nutrition and eXercise, a middle-school-based obesity-prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, multimedia, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education and marketing

Treatment:

Behavioral: Students for Nutrition and eXercise