Increasing School Meal Participation

Evaluating a Marketing Campaign to Increase Participation in School Meals

This study aims to determine whether an online marketing campaign increases children's school meal participation. Parents whose children do not currently eat school meals frequently will be exposed to messages designed to encourage their children's increased participation in school meals.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Nutrition, Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: School meal messages; Behavioral: Control (neutral) messages

Detailed Description

In this 6-week-long online randomized controlled trial, participants will be randomized to one of two arms: 1) Control (neutral) messages or 2) Messages designed to increase school meal participation. In each arm, participants will join private Facebook groups corresponding to their study arm. The study team will post campaign messages to these groups. Participants will answer online survey questions before and after the study on their attitudes about school meals and their child's participation in school meals.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 800
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Anna Grummon, PhD; Phone Number: 6506447366; Email: foodresearchlab@stanford.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Study Team; Phone Number: 6503089140; Email: foodresearchlab@stanford.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304
      • Stanford School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years or older
• Parent of a child attending a public school in grades 1-5
• Resides in one of the following states: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan,
• Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont
• Has internet access
• Has a Facebook account.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Younger than 18 years old
• Does not have a child attending a public school in grades 1-5
• Resides out of one of the following states: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont
• Does not have internet access
• Does not have a Facebook account

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: School meal messages; Participants will view messages focused on the benefits of children eating school meals, using text and images developed based on parent interviews. Participants will view a total of 12 messages.	Behavioral: School meal messages; Messages focused on the benefits of children consuming school lunch and breakfast, using text and images developed based on parent interviews. Participants will view a total of 12 messages.
Active Comparator: Control (neutral) messages; Participants will view messages focused on the benefits of children reading. Messages will be matched in length to the experimental messages. Participants will view a total of 12 messages.	Behavioral: Control (neutral) messages; Control messages approximately matched to the intervention messages on length and design, but discussing a neutral topic unrelated to school meals (reading). Participants will view a total of 12 messages.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participation in school breakfast	Assessed with 1 item: "During the past 30 days, how often did your child usually eat breakfast he, she, or they got at school from the cafeteria?" This item will be scored on a 6-point scale from "0 days per week" (0) to "5 days per week" (5).	Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks.
Participation in school lunch	Assessed with 1 tem: "During the past 30 days, how often did your child usually eat lunch he, she, or they got at school from the cafeteria?" This item will be scored on a 6-point scale from "0 days per week" (0) to "5 days per week" (5).	Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Household food insecurity	Assessed with 6 items: First, participants will be asked to indicate how often in the past month: "The food that we bought just didn't last, and we didn't have money to get more" and "We couldn't afford to eat balanced meals" with response options of "Never true" (0), "Sometimes true" (1), or "Often true" (2). Next, participants will be asked, "In the last month, did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn't enough money for food?"; "In the last month, were you ever hungry but didn't eat because there wasn't enough money for food?"; and "In the last month, did you or other adults in your household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn't enough money for food?" Responses: "No" (0), "Yes" (1). If "Yes" to any of these items, they will be asked: "How often did this happen?" with response options: "Only 1 or 2 days" (1), "Some days but not every day" (2), "Almost every day" (3).	Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks.
Child food insecurity	Assessed with 7 items: participants will indicate how often in the past month: "I relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed my child because I was running out of money to buy food"; "I couldn't feed my child a balanced meal, because I couldn't afford that."; "My child was not eating enough because I just couldn't afford enough food." "Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last month?" with responses: "Never true" (0); "Sometimes true" (1); "Often true" (2). Participants will be asked whether in the last month... "did you ever cut the size of your child's meals because there wasn't enough money for food?"; "was your child ever hungry but you just couldn't afford more food?" and "did your child ever skip meals because there wasn't enough money for food?" with responses: "No" (0); "Yes" (1). If "Yes", they will be asked: "How often did this happen?" with responses: "Only 1 or 2 days" (1), "Some days but not every day" (2), "Almost every day" (3).	Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks.
Perceived benefits	Assessed with 8 items: "Getting breakfast from school improves children's performance in school."; "Getting breakfast from school improves children's performance in sports."; "Getting breakfast from school improves children's energy."; "Getting breakfast from school makes children less likely to miss school."; "Getting breakfast from school makes children less likely to be late for school."; "Getting breakfast from school gives children enough food to eat."; "Getting breakfast from school gives children a variety of foods to eat."; "Getting breakfast from school gives children the chance to make their own choices." All items will use a 5-point Likert-type response scale: "Strongly disagree" (1); "Somewhat disagree" (2); "Neither agree nor disagree" (3); Somewhat agree (4); "Strongly agree" (5).	Collected in a ~10 minute survey at baseline and again at 6 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stanford University
• Collaborators: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Anna Grummon, PhD, Assistant Professor

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): September 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): February 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): February 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 13, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 16, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 17, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 17, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 16, 2024
• Last Verified: May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: health; nutrition; children; school lunch; food access; parent perceptions; school breakfast
• Other Study ID Numbers: 75335

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: We plan to post de-identified raw data from the surveys to a public repository.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: We plan to post de-identified raw data from the surveys to a public repository upon publication of papers arising from the study.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: These materials will be posted publicly; researchers will be free to download them.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; 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