FP4 Power-Up with Produce Supported Some Changes in Determinants of Fruit and Vegetable Intake of Rural Elementary Students

Objective Using athletes that children value to model eating fruit and vegetables (FV) could be an effective tool to increase FV consumption. The objective was to evaluate a nutrition intervention with athlete mentors aimed at increasing student preferences, knowledge of FV and decreasing FV neophobias. Description Eleven rural Indiana elementary schools were recruited into five strata and randomly assigned to control (n = 6) or intervention (n = 5) in a cluster RCT. Intervention students received an assembly featuring college athlete mentors, a tasting session, followed by six different videos ( Students completed Qualtrics surveys to assess FV familiarity, preferences, knowledge, and habits in September 2017 (pre), May 2018 (post-one), and September 2018 (post-two). Interactions between groups over time were compared using linear mixed models with random effects for school, class; α = 0.050. Evaluation FV preferences for control students (CON) decreased more than intervention students (INT) from pre- to post-one (P = .016), with no difference between groups from post-one to post-two (P = .118) and pre- to post-two (P = .482). Vegetable neophobias decreased from pre to post-two in INT vs. CON (P = .019), although overall treatment x time interaction was only marginally significant (P = .064). Food group knowledge increased from pre to post-one in INT vs. CON (P = .001) and maintained at post-two (P = .050). FV plate fraction knowledge marginally improved for INT from pre- to post-one (P = .066) and increased from pre- to post-two (P = .005). There were no differences in FV familiarity, frequency, variety, fruit neophobias, trying new FV, and being able to select high nutrient dense FV-containing foods. Conclusions and Implications The intervention to improve FV nutrition produced benefits in some, but not all, outcomes. Some improvements in nutritional attitudes and knowledge creates optimism that this program may enhance student nutrition. Program benefits may be enhanced with additional attention to components that support variety, frequency, familiarity, and comfort in trying FV. Grant Year 2016