Class lessons on food and cancer got more teens to eat fruit and vegetables
Who it’s about: Children, Students
- Helped
After teachers gave lessons on how food links to cancer, more teens ate fruit and vegetables each day.
Large randomised trial of 1,096 teenage school students in India · vs schools that kept their normal lessons · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; numbers unreliable; many people dropped out
- Helped
The same lessons also got more teenagers to keep fried, fast and packed food and sugary drinks to twice weekly.
Large randomised trial of 1,096 teenage school students in India · vs schools that kept their normal lessons · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; numbers unreliable; many people dropped out
The study
Who took part
1,096 students aged 13 to 17 at 16 government schools in the city of Jodhpur, India. About 7 in 10 were girls.
What they did
In 8 schools, two teachers had one training session of 60 to 90 minutes. Then they taught class lessons on how food links to cancer risk, using stories, case studies and pictures. The other 8 schools kept their normal lessons, and eating habits were checked 6 months later.
What happened
After 6 months, about 74 in 100 students with the lessons ate fruit and vegetables every day, against 68 in 100. About 59 in 100 kept fried, fast and packed food and sugary drinks to twice a week, against 47 in 100. Parts of the paper were garbled, more students dropped out in the lesson schools, and some numbers don't line up.
Source
Improving adolescents' dietary behavior through teacher-delivered cancer prevention education: a school-based cluster randomized intervention trial in urban Rajasthan (2024)
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-18114-8 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action4
Learn how the problem worksPsychoeducation about procrastination, habits, sleep, routines or ADHD.
