The Behaviour Change Approach to Changing Children's Eating Habits and Physical Activity
Prof. Fergus Lowe, CEO Food Dudes, was the closing keynote speaker at the InsideGov Event - "Working in partnership to reduce childhood obesity"
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Prof Fergus Lowe - InsideGov Conference, London 2013
1. Professor Fergus Lowe
The Behaviour Change Approach to
Changing Children’s Eating Habits
and Physical Activity
2. How do we prevent child
obesity?
Change children’s eating habits and
physical activity
3. Scientific Requirements for Interventions
• Should make contact with children’s
psychology
• Should be evidence based/evaluated
• Should actually change behaviour
- Consume more F&V and less junk food
7. Overview
Year 1
Full Force (16 Days)
Rest of the Year
DVD Episodes
Fruit & Veg Rewards
Home Chart
Fruit & Veg
Snack
Containers
Wallchart Rewards reduced
Parental
Involvement
Year 2 onwards
Food Dudes Forever
8. 4%
48%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
11
%
43
%
2%
5%
7% 7%
NB. Average daily portion weight presented = 83g of fruit or 60g of vegetables
%consumed
Control SchoolFood Dudes School
Before After
4 Months
London Schools
Poorest Eaters
Horne et al. (2004) Increasing children's fruit and vegetable consumption: a peer-modelling and rewards-based intervention.
Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 58, p1649-1660.
Before After
4 Months
Before After
4 Months
Before After
4 Months
FRUIT
VEG
14. Take up
600,000
Number of schoolchildren
participating in the Programme
• Wolverhampton
• Coventry
• Walsall
• Dudley
• Solihull
• Bedfordshire
• Hounslow
Scotland
• Grampian
Wales
• Denbighshire
Ireland
• All primary schools
US Projects
• Utah
• California
Italy Projects
• Milan
• Sicily
England Other countriesRest of UK
15. Summary Outcomes
• Large and long lasting changes in diet
• Biggest effects with poorest eaters
• Effects generalise from school to home
• Displacement of energy-dense nutrient-poor foods
• Works on large scale and internationally
16. World Heath Organization
Best Practice Award for Counteracting Obesity
Public Health Excellence Awards, West Midlands
Partnerships
Society for the Advancement of Behaviour Analysis
Scientific Translation Award
Awards
Chief Medical Officer’s Gold Medal Award
Combating Obesity
Local Authorities Research + Intelligence Association
Best Use of Health Research
17. Food Dudes:
Full Force, and Forever
Choice Architecture
of School Catering
Curriculum
Whole Environment Sustainable Behaviour Change
Home Based Family
Programme
Retail Outlets
Restaurants/Fast Food
Outlets
Food Dudes Physical Activity Programme
Oral Care
Cooking Skills
Gardening Skills
There are 3 main components of this programme. The Food Dudes’ 3 RsRole-Modelling — is established by showing DVD adventures featuring cool superheroes — the Food Dudes in battle with General Junk and his Junk Punks. The Dudes love fruit and veg and they always win. The episodes are designed by psychologists to maximise the Brand Power and influence of the Food Dudes._______________Rewards — such as badges, pens, and toys further motivate the children to begin tasting fuit and veg and further strengthen the brand._______________
2 Schools in Brixton, London - 80% non-british attended700 children1 Food Dudes 1 ControlF & V + DVDs and Rewards F & V% consumed@ LUNCHTIME - school canteenRed - fruit Green - vegPOOREST EATERS - those who ate under 20% or less of provided F & VFD School: BASELINE - F & V for 2 weeks INTERVENTION - 16 DAYS DVD & Rewards Follow-up - 4 monthsAbout a third in the Experimental School who ate just 4% of fruit and 11% of veg. But when the intervention was introduced there was a massive increase and at follow-up there was still a 12-fold increase in fruit and a 400% increase in vegetable consumption compared to baseline.The control group data are fascinating because again they show that simply giving fruit and vegetables to these kids has no real impact on their consumption which stays at an appallingly low 5-7%. These results show that simply making fruit and vegetables available to kids without the support of a programme like the Food Dudes, is a waste of resources.
Lunchtime fruit – 100%Lunchtime vegetables – 192%Snack reduction – 36%
Irish Experimental Evaluation (packed-lunches only, no school meal system). Food Dudes school got the Programme, the Control School got 16 days of F&V First graph shows grams of F&V provided by parents Second graph shows grams of F&V consumed by children At baseline (before FD) provision is about 60-70g 12 months after FD provision increases to 131g (nearly doubles), but remains the same in the control school Same pattern of results seen for consumption Programme is very effective at not only increasing children’s consumption of F&V but also increasing parental provision of these foods