Childhood Obesity Prevention Trough Education Innovation in Primary School: A Quasi-experimental Trial

Childhood obesity is recognized as both the most prevalent health problem in the western world and as a global epidemic. It has an multifactorial aetiology. Obesity in children has been attributed to decrease in physical activity and the overconsumption of cheap energy dense food.

Spain has one of the highest prevalence rates of overweight and obese children among OECD countries.

Health promotion and prevention strategies in community settings are in general most effective where they engage with social networks and build social capital to enable community ownership and embedding strategies. This is particularly the case for health promotion at primary school, as social institutions within a community setting that represent a complex system with direct an indirect community relationship and social networks.

One of the best methods to prevent childhood obesity is to follow the Mediterranean diet. Especially in Mediterranean countries for the ease of access to essential products of this diet.

Chiquichefs is a methodology of project-based learning using healthy through cooking as the core of the curriculum, so children learn the academic content through cooking workshop in their school.

A quasi-experimental study was developed, for which children of the intervention schools (n = 75) in a public spanish school is compared with children of a control schools (n = 75) in the same region.

The interventions started in october 2015. In the intervention school, a whole-school approach named "chiquichefs" is implemented with the aim of improving culinary skills and dietary behaviour.

The "chiquichefs" project ideas is to make the kitchen the central pillar of the curriculum for several years. So children will learn to cook during school hours -- and not as an after-school activity -- and along the way they will also be taught the core content.

They'll do maths counting chick peas, study the recipes of literature, the geography of food, work out the boiling point of soups and learn the anatomy of cattle.

With this project, we aim to deliver the core educational requirements, teach kids to cook and lay the foundations for them to benefit from a healthier diet throughout their lives. We're going conduct a scientific study to measure the impact on the children's health and education in the hope of eventually persuading others to follow our lead.

We are going to measure the anthropometric variables, the adherence to mediterranean diet and the quality of life of all participants before and after the "chiquichefs" program.