New Foods Take Time, a Curriculum Designed to Promote Tasting and Liking of Fruits and Vegetables

Evaluating "New Foods Take Time", a Classroom-based Curriculum Designed to Promote Tasting and Liking of Fruits and Vegetables Among Head Start Preschool Children

The overall objective of this project is to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the "New Foods Take Time" Intervention in Head Start preschool classrooms.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Eating Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: New Foods Take Time

Detailed Description

The overall objective of this project is to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the "New Foods Take Time" Intervention. This curriculum is designed to increase children's preference for and consumption of fruits and vegetables (FV) by encouraging children to try new FV and repeatedly taste these foods.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, 16802
      • Pennsylvania State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 7 months and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Child Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in a Head Start preschool center
• Between the ages of 2 and 5 years old

Child Exclusion Criteria:

• Food allergy or restriction to foods in the tastings

Parent Inclusion Criteria:

• Parent or primary caregiver of a child enrolled in the study
• Age 18 years or older
• English speaking

Parent Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Teacher Inclusion Criteria:

• Actively employed as an early childhood education provider in the Head Start classroom where the intervention is delivered
• Age 18 years or older

Teacher Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: New Foods Take Time; Head Start classrooms will receive "New Foods Take Time", a series of five interactive weekly lessons designed to promote children's willingness to try new foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Lessons will be delivered by nutrition educations. Children will also receive three tastings per week of the new foods discussed during the lessons.	Behavioral: New Foods Take Time; New Foods Take Time is a series of 5 classroom lessons focused on increasing children's willingness to try fruits and vegetables.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in number of foods tasted	Children will be presented with small portions of familiar and novel fruits and vegetables and be asked if they would like to taste them	Pre intervention and at conclusion of 5 week intervention
Change in liking of study foods	For foods that children agree to taste, they will be asked to rate their liking of them on a three point likert-type scale ("Yummy", "Just ok", or "Yucky")	Pre intervention and at conclusion of 5 week intervention
Change in self-competence to try new foods	Children will be presented with a series pairs of drawings with descriptions (e.g., "This boy likes to try new foods" and "This boy does not like to try new foods") and asked to select which is most like them.	Pre intervention and at conclusion of 5 week intervention
Teacher acceptability of intervention	Teachers will complete a questionnaire with scaled and open-ended questions about the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention	At conclusion of 5 week intervention

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Child body mass index	Height and weight will be measured and used to calculate body mass index (BMI). Age and sex specific percentiles/z-scores will be calculated using CDC growth standards.	Measured once at any time between enrollment and conclusion of 5 week intervention
Parent report of child neophobia	Parents will complete a survey about their child's eating behavior	Measured once at any time between enrollment and conclusion of 5 week intervention
Parent report of food insecurity	Parents will complete the USDA food security questionnaire	Measured once at any time between enrollment and conclusion of 5 week intervention
Change in intake of study foods	The number of pieces of each food eaten during the tasting procedure	Pre intervention and at conclusion of 5 week intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Penn State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jennifer Savage, PhD, Penn State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 25, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): November 25, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 9, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 14, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): October 16, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 14, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 10, 2021
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: children; preschool; fruits; vegetables; food neophobia
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00013066

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: Deidentified individual participant data will be available from the principal investigator upon request
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available after publication of primary outcomes
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Requests for access to the data will be reviewed and approved at the principal investigator's discretion.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol; Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP); Informed Consent Form (ICF); Clinical Study Report (CSR); Analytic Code

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No