Effectiveness of a universal parental support programme to promote health behaviours and prevent overweight and obesity in 6-year-old children in disadvantaged areas, the Healthy School Start Study II, a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Table 2 Effects of intervention on dietary intake of indicator foods at T2 and T3

			T2					T3
Servings^a the previous weekday	n	b	p	95 % CI	Between school class variance σ ²_u (s.e.)	n	b	p	95 % CI	Between school class variance σ ²_u (s.e.)
Separate variables
Fruit juice	190	−0.24	0.16	−0.09 to 0.56	0.19 (0.23)	154	−0.09	0.70	−0.53 to 0.36	0.00 (0.00)
Soft drink/sugar syrup	162	−0.28	0.25	−0.76 to 0.19	0.00 (0.00)	126	0.02	0.95	−0.64 to 0.68	0.00 (0.00)
Flavoured milk	161	−0.47	0.15	−1.11 to 0.16	0.00 (0.00)	131	−0.04	0.92	−0.76 to 0.68	0.00 (0.00)
Vegetables	226	0.15	0.22	−0.09 to 0.38	0.00 (0.00)	196	0.02	0.85	−0.22 to 0.27	0.00 (0.00)
Snacks	195	−0.57	0.08	−1.19 to 0.06	0.00 (0.00)	162	−0.46	0.19	−1.16 to 0.24	1.35 (0.49)
Fruits	241	−0.15	0.13	−0.35 to 0.04	0.00 (0.00)	206	0.03	0.76	−0.18 to 0.25	0.00 (0.00)
Sweets/chocolate	210	−0.38	0.10	−0.82 to 0.07	0.00 (0.00)	173	−0.26	0.29	−0.73 to 0.21	0.00 (0.00)
Cakes/buns/cookies	212	0.00	1.00	−0.51 to 0.51	0.00 (0.00)	179	−0.33	0.12	−0.74 to 0.89	0.00 (0.00)
Girls^b	104	−0.04	0.88	−0.55 to 0.47	0.00 (0.00)
Boys^b	108	−0.95	0.003	−1.58 to -0.32	0.00 (0.00)
Ice-cream	222	−0.22	0.22	−0.57 to 0.13	0.00 (0.00)	186	−0.22	0.30	−0.65 to 0.20	0.00 (0.00)
Aggregated variables^c
Unhealthy food	230	−0.32	0.01	−0.56 to -0.07	0.19 (0.07)	198	−0.15	0.42	−0.51 to 0.22	0.95 (0.16)
Girls^b						101	0.19	0.43	−0.28 to 0.67	0.79 (0.19)
Boys^b						97	−0.50	0.03	−0.94 to -0.06	0.37 (0.14)
Unhealthy drink	214	−0.51	0.01	−0.90 to -0.11	0.26 (0.16)	182	0.05	0.83	−0.39 to 0.49	0.19 (0.20)
Healthy food	248	−0.02	0.79	−0.16 to 0.12	0.00 (0.00)	217	−0.03	0.68	−0.18 to 0.12	0.00 (0.00)

Results of Mixed Poisson Regression adjusted for sex, parental education and baseline value
b = Regression coefficient (beta), p = between intervention and control groups, CI = 95 % confidence interval
^aServing sizes (examples below)
Drinks = 1.5 dl
Vegetables = 2 dl grated carrots/cabbage or a big tomato or 2-3 broccoli stalks
Fruits = a small apple or a bunch of grapes (about 10)
Snacks = 1.5 dl of crisps or cheese doodles
Sweets = about 1.5 dl of sweets or 4 pieces from a chocolate bar
Cakes = a small bun or 5 small biscuits
Ice-cream = a small popsicle stick or 1 dl ice-cream
^bStratified analysis due to interaction effect (group × sex)
^cAggregated variables: unhealthy foods (snacks, sweets/chocolate, ice-cream, cakes/buns/cookies), healthy foods (fruit and vegetables) and unhealthy drinks (soft drink, flavoured milk and fruit juice above one serving)
Subjects are dependent observations between T1 and T2 and between T1 and T3

ISSN: 1479-5868