Adding a Social Marketing Campaign to a School-Based Nutrition Education Program Improves Children's Dietary Intake: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background Evidence supports the use of social marketing campaigns to improve nutrition knowledge and reinforce the effects of nutrition education programs. However, the additional effects of parent-focused social marketing with nutrition education have received little attention. Objective Our aim was to assess the impact of the Iowa Nutrition Network's school-based nutrition education program (Building and Strengthening Iowa Community Support for Nutrition and Physical Activity [BASICS]) and the benefits of adding a multichannel social marketing intervention (BASICS Plus) to increase parent-directed communication. Design and intervention A quasi-experimental design with three study conditions compared a school-based nutrition education program (BASICS) with a school-based and social marketing intervention (BASICS Plus) and a no-treatment comparison group. Participants/setting The study included 1,037 third-grade students attending 33 elementary schools and their parents. Main outcome measures Measures included parents' reports of their children's in-home consumption of fruits and vegetables (F/V) and use of low-fat/fat-free milk. Data on F/V were collected using a modified version of the University of California Cooperative Extension Food Behavior Checklist; and data on milk use were collected using two questions from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Statistical analyses Multilevel, mixed-effect regression models that account for correlation within repeated measures and children within school were used to compare the mean change over time in the outcome variable for one study group with the mean change over time for another study group. Results Children in BASICS increased mean consumption of fruit by 0.16 cups (P = 0.04) compared with children in the comparison group. Children in BASICS Plus increased mean consumption of fruit by 0.17 cups (P = 0.03) and mean consumption of vegetables by 0.13 cups (P = 0.02). Children in BASICS Plus were 1.3 times (P = 0.05) more likely to use low-fat/fat-free milk than children in either the BASICS group or the comparison group. Conclusions Gaining parents' attention and engaging them in healthy eating practices for their children can be a useful way to increase the effectiveness of school-based nutrition education programs. This study demonstrates the benefits of incorporating a parent-focused social marketing campaign in nutrition education interventions.