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Shifting Dietary Behaviours: Expanding School-Based Campaigns

Author: Âé¶¹´«Ã½

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The Battle for Healthy Diets is a three-month intervention led by teachers in classrooms. It aims to increase children¡¯s intake of fruit, vegetables and eggs while reducing unhealthy snack and drink consumption. The objectives are for children to: 1) Eat fruit and egg daily; 2) Eat three vegetables daily; and 3) Avoid unhealthy snacks/drinks.

In just three months, the campaign significantly improved the diets of Cambodian schoolchildren. Children increased their vegetable consumption by 11.2 percent compared to non-intervention schools. Similarly, children in intervention schools reduced unhealthy snack and drink intake by 10.7 percent compared to children in control schools. These results were statistically significant, at 5 percent and 1 percent respectively. Although there was a positive trend in egg consumption, this was not statistically significant.

At a cost of only US$226 per school per year to run the intervention, the programme demonstrates that school-based Social and Behaviour Change campaigns can deliver rapid, cost-effective improvements in dietary quality. Further follow-up can better assess both the sustainability and the impacts of the intervention in other areas in Cambodia.