Effects of School Gardens on Children's Diet, Nutritional Knowledge, Etc. (HGHY)

Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth (HGHY): A People's Garden School Pilot Program

The purpose of this study is to determine whether school gardens influence children's dietary intake, nutritional knowledge, and other outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dietary Habits
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: garden intervention

Detailed Description

Schools in New York, Washington State, Iowa, and Arkansas were randomly assigned to receive school gardens and associated curriculum or to serve on the wait list control group that received gardens and curriculum at the end of the 2-year study. Baseline data were collected in Fall 2011. Garden interventions began in Spring 2012. Follow-up data were collected at 6, 12, 18 months following baseline data collection.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 3531
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arkansas
    • Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, 72204
      • Schools in Arkansas
  • Iowa
    • Osceola, Iowa, United States, 50213
      • Schools in Iowa
  • New York
    • Ithaca, New York, United States, 14850
      • Schools in New York State
  • Washington
    • Tacoma, Washington, United States, 98418
      • Schools in Washington State

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Schools had at least 50% of enrolled children qualifying for free + reduced price meals (FRPM)
• Schools did not already have a school garden.

Exclusion Criteria:

none.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: garden intervention; Schools assigned to the garden intervention receive raised bed garden kits and access to a toolkit of garden-based curriculum	Behavioral: garden intervention; The intervention includes raised bed garden kits for participating classes as well as access to garden-based curriculum.
No Intervention: Control; Wait-list control (no garden intervention + lessons) until end of the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
change in fruit + vegetable intake at school	Children's lunch trays are photographed before and after lunch for 3 days at each wave of data collection. Digital Food Image Analysis software computes grams of fruit and grams of vegetables consumed for each pair of lunch tray photos.	change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Garden Intervention Fidelity	fruit + vegetables planted, harvested; methods of fruit and vegetable distribution; and garden-based lessons delivered to the class are measures at each wave of data collection from Fall 2011 to Spring 2013.	At 3 garden intervention time points -- 6, 12, 18 months after baseline
change fruit & vegetable consumption at home		change from baseline (Fall 2011) to follow-up at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months.
change in Nutritional Knowledge	In the classroom, children complete a 7-item multiple choice questionnaire developed by the Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth curriculum development team. The questionnaire includes items about plant science (e.g., Which part of the plant uses the sun's energy to make food? root, stem, leaf, flower) and nutrition (e.g., Which nutrient supplies our bodies with energy? fiber, carbohydrates, water, vitamins). Data represent the number of correct answers.	change from baseline to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months
change in Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) self efficacy	In the classroom, children complete a 15-item questionnaire, derived from the Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI) (Arnold & Bourdeau, 2009) and the Iowa 4-H Science Youth Self-Assessment (Staker, 2011). Items include, for example: "I can do an experiment to answer a question" and "I can develop a plan for a good garden I want to plant" with response options "Disagree." "Not Sure." or "Agree" denoted 1, 2, or 3 respectively. The STEM self-efficacy score range is thus 15-45, with higher scores indicating that participant has stronger positive beliefs in their abilities to use STEM to solve problems.	change from baseline (Fall 2011) to follow-up at 6, 12, 18 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Cornell University
• Collaborators: Washington State University; University of Arkansas; Iowa State University
• Investigators: Study Director: Nancy M Wells, PhD, Cornell University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Wells NM, Meyers BM, Todd LE, Henderson CR Jr, Barale K, Gaolach B, Ferenz G, Aitken M, Tse CC, Pattison KO, Hendrix L, Carson JB, Taylor C, Franz NK. The carry-over effects of school gardens on fruit and vegetable availability at home: A randomized controlled trial with low-income elementary schools. Prev Med. 2018 Jul;112:152-159. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.03.022. Epub 2018 Apr 5.

Helpful Links

• Healthy Gardens Healthy Youth

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 15, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 15, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): June 18, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): June 18, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 15, 2014
• Last Verified: May 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: children; diet; fruit; school; vegetable; garden
• Other Study ID Numbers: CN-CGP-11-0047