Project Daire: Derry/Londonderry as the Nexus City for Food, Education, Trust and Health (Daire)

Project Daire: Derry/Londonderry as the Nexus City for Food, Education, Trust and Health'

Project Daire is a randomised-controlled factorial design trial working in partnership with primary schools and local food producers evaluating two interventions designed to improve primary school children's knowledge of and interest in food and where it comes from, with the ultimate aim of driving improvement in health, well-being and educational status.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Engage; Behavioral: Nourish

Detailed Description

Project Daire is a randomised-controlled factorial design trial working in partnership with primary schools and local food producers evaluating two interventions designed to improve primary school children's knowledge of and interest in food and where it comes from, with the ultimate aim of driving improvement in health, well-being and educational status. Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils will be recruited from 15 primary schools in the North West of Northern Ireland and will be randomised to one of four intervention arms: i) 'Engage', ii) 'Nourish', iii) 'Engage' and 'Nourish' and iv) Delayed of duration up to 6 months. Study outcomes include food knowledge, attitudes, trust, diet, behaviour, health and wellbeing and will be collected at baseline and six months.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1080
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Northern Ireland
    • Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, BT12 6BJ
      • Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 11 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Mainstream primary schools willing to be randomly assigned to an intervention,
• Mainstream primary schools willing to engage with the intervention and implement it with their pupils,
• Mainstream primary schools willing to facilitate pre and post-test data collection in their setting,
• Mainstream primary schools within the North West region of Northern Ireland.
• Pupils in Primary 3 (Key Stage 1) and Primary 7 (Key Stage 2) of participating schools were eligible to take part.

Exclusion criteria

• Secondary schools
• Non-mainstream schools
• Schools not in the North West region of Northern Ireland

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Engage; The Engage intervention was developed with input from primary school teachers and includes a range of age-appropriate educational activities related to food. Activities include videos, lesson plans, worksheets, games, talks/visits from experts, visits to industrial partners and other local food-related centres of interest and practical activities such as experiments. All 'Engage' material is mapped to the Northern Ireland School Curriculum. The 'Engage' intervention is structured into three broad topics: Farm to Fork; Pleasure on a Plate and Food Futures. Engage resources were provided to schools electronically and in hard copy and teachers delivered most of the content, with the exception of several sessions which were delivered by visiting scientists.	Behavioral: Engage; The Engage intervention was developed with input from primary school teachers and includes a range of age-appropriate educational activities related to food. Activities include videos, lesson plans, worksheets, games, talks/visits from experts, visits to industrial partners and other local food-related centres of interest and practical activities such as experiments. All 'Engage' material is mapped to the Northern Ireland School Curriculum. The 'Engage' intervention is structured into three broad topics: Farm to Fork; Pleasure on a Plate and Food Futures. Engage resources were provided to schools electronically and in hard copy and teachers delivered most of the content, with the exception of several sessions which were delivered by visiting scientists.
Experimental: Nourish; The Nourish intervention is a school food environment intervention which included weekly healthy snack provision supplied by food industry partners, enhancement of canteen dining area (café style, tablecloths, centre pieces, bunting and menu boards, healthy eating posters), attendance at Tasting Days held in Higher Education Colleges (children were encouraged to try new foods provided by industry partners and received stamps on 'food passports' in return) and sensory educational and cookery activities.	Behavioral: Nourish; The Nourish intervention is a school food environment intervention which included weekly healthy snack provision supplied by food industry partners, enhancement of canteen dining area (café style, tablecloths, centre pieces, bunting and menu boards, healthy eating posters), attendance at Tasting Days held in Higher Education Colleges (children were encouraged to try new foods provided by industry partners and received stamps on 'food passports' in return) and sensory educational and cookery activities.
Experimental: Nourish and Engage; This arm of the intervention delivered both the Nourish and Engage interventions as detailed above.	Behavioral: Engage; The Engage intervention was developed with input from primary school teachers and includes a range of age-appropriate educational activities related to food. Activities include videos, lesson plans, worksheets, games, talks/visits from experts, visits to industrial partners and other local food-related centres of interest and practical activities such as experiments. All 'Engage' material is mapped to the Northern Ireland School Curriculum. The 'Engage' intervention is structured into three broad topics: Farm to Fork; Pleasure on a Plate and Food Futures. Engage resources were provided to schools electronically and in hard copy and teachers delivered most of the content, with the exception of several sessions which were delivered by visiting scientists.; Behavioral: Nourish; The Nourish intervention is a school food environment intervention which included weekly healthy snack provision supplied by food industry partners, enhancement of canteen dining area (café style, tablecloths, centre pieces, bunting and menu boards, healthy eating posters), attendance at Tasting Days held in Higher Education Colleges (children were encouraged to try new foods provided by industry partners and received stamps on 'food passports' in return) and sensory educational and cookery activities.
No Intervention: Delayed; The delayed arm of the intervention was the control arm. Schools randomised to this arm of the study were offered the Engage intervention resources after endpoint data collection.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in KIDSCREEN-10 score at 6 months	Validated well-being questionnaire for children. Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils.This is an 11-item instrument answered on a 5-point scale and results in one global HRQoL score. Most of the items are formulated positively and in concordance with the scoring, which means a higher score reflects a higher HRQoL. However, some items are formulated negatively and as a consequence the scoring has to be recoded. The scoring method results in T-values with scale means around 50 and standard deviations around 10 with higher values indicating higher HRQoL.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Change in Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire score at 6 months	Validated brief behavioural screening questionnaire. Completed by teachers. This 25-item instrument incorporates 5 scales of 5 items, with each item answered on a 3 point scale. All scales represent a negative trait, with the exception of the ProSocial Scale which indicates a positive trait. For each of the 5 scales the score can range from 0 to 10 if all items were completed. A Total Difficulties score is the final score and indicates poorer behaviour. Therefore the lower the score, the better the outcome in terms of behaviour.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
24 Hour Dietary Record	Validated dietary intake questionnaire in age group (Moore et al., Br J Nutr 2008;99:1266-74). Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils. Prospective record of all foods and drinks consumed over a 24 hour period. Data are analysed using dietary analysis software to produce average daily intake of food groups, macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Food Frequency Questionnaire	Food Frequency Questionnaire developed by study team based on other similar age-appropriate food frequency questionnaires (Cade et al., Public Health Nutr 2005;9:501-8). Two versions-one shorter version developed for younger KS1 age group, one for KS2 age group. Children asked to indicate categorical responses ('yes', 'no' and 'not sure') to indicate whether or not they ever eat a particular food. Presented as a food group list with categorical responses.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Food Shopping, Preparation & Consumption	Questionnaire developed by study team. Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils. Children asked to indicate categorical responses 'always', 'sometimes', 'never' or 'agree' 'not sure' or 'do not agree' with reference to various cooking, food preparation scenarios and how they feel about trying new foods.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Perceived cooking competence	Researcher developed questionnaire (items sourced from unpublished data), based on similar measures for perceived movement competence (Barnett et al., 2015; Harter and Pike, 1984). Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils-shorter version developed for KS2 pupils. Categorical responses 'yes' and 'no' with regards to have they ever demonstrated a range of different cooking skills. Children are then presented with a range of illustrated characters who vary in their competence and child indicates which child they are most like with regards to that particular cooking skill.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Agri-Food Knowledge	Questionnaire designed to assess pupil knowledge on range of agri-food topics (food chain, farm, seasonality, local versus imported). Researcher developed with industry input, piloted and face validity with experts in the different fields, some items adapted from previous measures (Moss et al., 2013; Reynolds et al., 2012; Harmon and Maretzki, 2006; Saksvig et al., 2005) and BNF - Food a fact of Life (http://archive.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspx?siteId=14§ionId=63&contentId=176). Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils-shorter version developed for KS1 pupils. Responses categorical and categories varied by item type.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Food Jobs/Careers Aspirations	Questionnaire to assess career aspirations and knowledge of food-related jobs. Developed by research team. Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils. Open-ended questions asking about career aspirations and assessing knowledge of careers related to food.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Preference/Willingness to Try	Questionnaire to assess knowledge of willingness to try range of foods. Researcher adapted from Morgan et al. (2010) and Birch and Sullivan (1991). Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils-shorter version for KS1 pupils.Responses largely categorical with some open-ended questions asking children to identify the food.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Attitudes	Questionnaire to assess pupil attitude to importance of health behaviours, including diet. Previously used in a survey of NI schoolchildren health (Young Hearts Studies). Completed by KS2 pupils only. This is an 11-item instrument assessing attitudes towards importance of various health behaviours 'very important', 'quite important', 'not important'	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Food source to product - knowledge	Questionnaire to assess level of knowledge in terms of food source to product. Developed by research team. Completed by KS1 and KS2 pupils. Categorical matching responses.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Trust	Questionnaire to assess level of trust in local food products. Developed by research team. Completed by KS2 only. This is a 10-item instrument answered on a 5-point scale (definitely disagree, disagree, not sure, agree, definitely agree).	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
School food environment observation	Observational proforma designed to allow researcher to assess current school food environment. Developed by research team. Completed by researcher. Observational-open-ended responses.	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
School food environment questionnaire	Questionnaire designed to assess current school food environment. Developed by research team. Completed by school principal/management	Baseline (Month 0), 6 months
Exposure to/Experience with Agri-Food	Questionnaire designed to characterise pupils in terms of previous experience of agri-food. Developed by research team. Developed with KS1 and KS2 age-appropriate questions. Categorical responses.	Baseline only (Month 0)
Baseline Skills Scale	Questionnaire designed to characterise pupil's level of cooking skills. Previously validated questionnaire. Children indicate how good they believe they are at various cooking skills on a 7-point scale (1 is very poor and 7 is very good).	Baseline only (Month 0)
Daire Evaluation questionnaire	Process Evaluation questionnaire for both Nourish and Engage interventions completed by teachers. Developed by research team. Categorical and op-ended responses.	6 months only

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Queen's University, Belfast
• Collaborators: Invest NI
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jayne Woodside, PhD, Queen's University, Belfast

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Brennan SF, Lavelle F, Moore SE, Dean M, McKinley MC, McCole P, Hunter RF, Dunne L, O'Connell NE, Cardwell CR, Elliott CT, McCarthy D, Woodside JV. Food environment intervention improves food knowledge, wellbeing and dietary habits in primary school children: Project Daire, a randomised-controlled, factorial design cluster trial. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2021 Feb 4;18(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12966-021-01086-y.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 7, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 27, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): June 27, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 11, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 17, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): February 20, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 20, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 17, 2020
• Last Verified: February 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Primary School Children; Childhood Wellbeing; Childhood Health; Food Education; Food Knowledge
• Other Study ID Numbers: 038_1819; RD1014267 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Invest NI)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

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