Introduction
Methods
Search Strategy
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Identification of Relevant Papers
Data Extraction
Authors | Year | Country | Intervention | Target | Design (data source if secondary data) | Subjects | Findings |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bruce et al. | 2017 | US | Summer library meal programme | Children, parents and other adults | Mixed methods | 67 adults (89% parents) | Parents value library lunch scheme in the summer holidays as a method of enrichment for children, allowing socialisation |
Carney et al. | 2012 | US | Community gardening programme | Migrant seasonal farmworker families | Mixed methods | 38 families | Frequency of children’s vegetable intake of “several time a day” increased from 24.0 to 64.0%. No significant change in the reported number of meals children skipped due to lack of money |
Corcoran et al. | 2016 | US | Breakfast in the Classroom | School children | Experimental | Unknown | No evidence of gains in academic performance or of feared increases in obesity |
Dave et al. | 2018 | US | Kid’s Café Program | Children | Cluster Randomised Control Trial (RCT) | 120 9–12-year-olds | At post-test, children from both groups had significantly lower vegetable consumption, intervention group children had significantly higher sodium scores. No significant difference in BMI after intervention or between groups |
Defeyter et al. | 2015 | UK | Holiday breakfast clubs | Children and adults | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | 17 children 18 adult attendees 15 staff | Staff and attendees report nutritional, social and financial benefits. Attendees consume greater variety of breakfast foods and attendance lessens social isolation. |
Dunifon et al. | 2002 | US | National School Lunch Program | Children | Cross-sectional (Child Development Supplement—Panel Study of Income Dynamics: CDS-PSID) | 1618 children aged 6–12 years | Participating in NSLP associated with increased odds of externalising behaviour, 82% increased odds of a health limitation and lower maths test scores. Associations disappear when comparing the outcomes of siblings, one of whom does not participate in NSLP. |
Fletcher et al. | 2017 | US | School Breakfast Program | Children | Cross-sectional (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: NHANES) | 2734 children aged 6–16 | Access to SBP reduces the likelihood of children’s very low food security by 2% (baseline rate of 2%, so a 100% reduction). |
Graham et al. | 2016 | UK | Holiday clubs | Children | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | 14 staff members | Staff perceive multiple benefits to children attending holiday clubs including food (trying new foods, more nutritious foods, attenuating hunger), activities social opportunities, informal learning |
Gundersen et al. | 2012 | US | National School Lunch Program (NSLP) | School children | Cross-sectional (NHANES) | 3796 6–17-year-olds | Free lunch programme reduces incidence of poor health by between 33 and 67%, obesity by at least 21%, and food poverty by at least 6%. |
Harvey-Golding et al. | 2016 | UK | Universal Free School Breakfast (UFSB) | School children | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | 19 senior stakeholders from local authorities | Stakeholders perceive UFSB as alleviating hunger, improving health outcomes, improving finances, and having potential for educational, social and behavioural benefits. Stakeholders also reported concerns about potential increases in obesity. |
Jones et al. | 2003 | US | School lunch programme, school breakfast programme and FSP | Children (and families in the FSP) | Cross-sectional (CDS-PSID) | 772 5–12-year-old children | Food-insecure girls who participated in all 3 programmes had 68% reduced odds of being at risk of overweight. Participation had no association with risk of overweight for girls in food-secure households or any boys. |
Kastorini et al. | 2016 | Greece | “DIATROFI” programme: provides all students of participating schools with daily free meals and health education for participants and families | School children (and families) | Experimental-no control | 162 schools in low SES areas (3941 pre- and post-questionnaires completed) | Frequency of consumption of all foods promoted by the intervention significantly increased (milk/yoghurt: 16.7%; fruits: 17.5%; vegetables: 16.9%; whole grain products: 85.7%), and diet quality increased among participating adolescent girls. |
Khan et al. | 2011 | US | School breakfast and lunch provision | School children | Cross-sectional | 373 students aged 11 to 14 | School breakfast provision attenuates group differences in breakfast consumption among food-insecure children. |
Kohn et al. | 2014 | US | SNAP WIC school meals | Children/mothers | Cross-sectional (NHANES) | 1321 children aged 4 to 17 from low income families | Food assistance programme participation is associated with increased BMI-Z and waist circumference among food-secure children, but not among food-insecure children. |
Munday et al. | 2017 | New Zealand | Nutrition education | Children | Experimental-baseline vs post-intervention with 6-month follow-up | 17 kindergarten children (mean 4 years and 2 months) | No significant changes in nutrient intake, but a significant decrease in consumption of ultra-processed snack foods. Also increases of fruit and vegetable consumption at 6 months (not tested for statistical significance). |
Nalty et al. | 2013 | US | SNAP, NSLP | Children/mothers | Longitudinal questionnaire study | 40 mother–child dyads | School-based nutrition programmes (WIC, NSLP, SBP) reduced the odds of child food insecurity by 74% |
Nguyen et al. | 2017 | US | SNAP, NSLP | Low-income households | Questionnaire study | 4719 children and adolescents | Among SNAP participants and non-participants, there was no significant relationship between household food security and BMI. |
Racine et al. | 2013 | US | Food and Fun | Mothers and children | Experimental-no control | 7 mothers and 13 children | Significant increase in children’s fruit and vegetable consumption (increase of 2.2 portions per day) and physical activity (additional 2 days reported as active for more than 1 hour) |
Rivera et al. | 2016 | US | SNAP-Education | Low-income households | RCT | 208 households | No significant change in child food security status in comparison to control group. Authors suggest that children are protected from worst effects of household food insecurity, and that children’s food insecurity was low |
Rodriguez et al. | 2013 | US | Nutrition education | Homeless children | Experimental | 162 children | Some indication of an increase in children’s willingness to try different foods, liking new foods, and new intentions to change health behaviours among attending children |
Roustit et al. | 2010 | Canada | School food programme | Children | Cross-sectional (Social and Health Survey of Quebec Children and Adolescents) | 2346 13- or 16-year-olds | Household food insecurity associated with scholastic difficulties. No association for children attending schools with food assistance. Attendees also had reduced risk of school activity limitation, repeating a year, below-average grades and poor academic performance all decreased. |
Sharkey et al. | 2013 | US | NSLP, SNAP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional (colonia–household and community food resource assessment) | 470 adults in Texas border region with at least one child in household | NSLP participation associated with increased odds of child hunger whilst SNAP participation associated with decreased odds for child hunger |
Sharma et al. | 2017 | USA | Brighter Bites: aims to tackle food waste and improve access to fresh produce and nutrition education among underserved children and their families. | Underserved children and their families | Cross-sectional | 2013–2014: 1224 families enrolled; 2014–2015: 2625 families enrolled; 2015–2016: 8216 families enrolled (unclear n for evaluation of data) | 83% of parents reported availability of produce improved child intake of F&V, and > 70% reported nutrition education to be effective. |
Shemilt et al. | 2004 | England | School Breakfast Club | Children | RCT | 5525 children | Children attending schools with breakfast club provision had significantly better concentration post-intervention than controls. Significantly fewer intervention children reported skipping classes. Significantly more children attending breakfast club reported eating fruit for breakfast than controls. A significantly larger proportion of primary-school children who had attended breakfast club had conduct issues. |
Authors | Year | Country | Intervention | Target | Design (data source if secondary data) | Sample | Findings |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beck et al. | 2014 | US | Keeping Infants Nourished and Developing (KIND) | Food-insecure families with infants. | Experimental | 5071 infants | Completion of preventative care services and a full set of well-infant visits by 14 months more common among KIND users. No significant differences in weight-for-length. |
Beharie et al. | 2017 | USA | Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) | Low-income households | Cross-sectional (National Survey of Children’s Health) | 25,899 children/households | SNAP participation moderates the association between material deprivation and grade retention. |
Black et al. | 2004 | US | Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program | Mothers (pre- and post-partum), infants and children | Cross-sectional (The Children’s Sentinel Nutritional Assessment Program) | 5923 infants | Length-for-age and height-for-age among WIC claimers in line with national average. WIC entitled but not claiming due to access issues were underweight and short and had 1.9 times odds of fair/poor health as opposed to good/excellent compared to those receiving WIC. |
Black et al. | 2012 | US | WIC | Women and children | Cross-sectional (Children’s HealthWatch) | 26,950 caregivers and children younger than 36 months | WIC participation attenuates child health risks associated with stressors, e.g. fair/poor health, well-child status and overweight. |
Burgstahler et al. | 2012 | US | SNAP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional (survey of household finances and childhood obesity) | 360 children aged 2–18 | Participation in SNAP has a significant negative effect on weight status, depth and severity of overweight, with and without controlling for financial stress. |
Collins et al. | 2017 | US | Summer Electronic Bank Transfer for Children (SEBTC)-SNAP extension | Low-income households | Randomised controlled trial (RCT) | 9124 households | Very low food security among children reduced by 34% in SEBTC group. Moderate improvements in children’s fruit, vegetable and dairy consumption. |
Cook et al. | 2006 | US | Food Stamp Program | Low-income families | Cross-sectional (The Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program) | 17,130 children | Participation in FSP reduced the odds of fair/poor health (as opposed to excellent/good health) by 24 and 42% in children in food-insecure households and food-insecure children in food-insecure households, respectively. |
Frongillo et al. | 2006 | US | Food Stamp Program (FSP) | Low-income families | Longitudinal (early childhood longitudinal study—kindergarten cohort) | 10,600 kindergarten children | Children who started participating in FSP had a 3-point greater improvement in both reading and mathematics scores than children who stopped FSP participation. When split by gender, only significant for females. |
Gibson | 2004 | US | FSP | Low-income families | Longitudinal (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979: NLSY79) | 7843 children | Participation during all of the previous 5 years was associated with a 42.8% increase for young girls and a 28.8% decrease for young boys in the predicted probability of overweight. Long-term FSP participation was not significantly related to overweight in older children |
Gundersen et al. | 2017 | US | SNAP | Low-income households | Longitudinal (survey of income and programme participation) | 5653 households with children | SNAP decreases the percentage of children not eating enough by at least 5.1%, or 41%, relative to the baseline that SNAP did not exist. |
Hanson et al. | 2017 | US | Cost-offset agriculture | Low-income households | Longitudinal experimental study: no control, national averages used as comparison | 41 low-income households | Participating children had higher fruit and vegetable intake than the US averages and met daily recommendations for vegetable intake more often (82.9% met recommendations). Total fruit and vegetable intake did not differ between summer and winter. |
Jones et al. | 2003 | US | School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program and FSP | Children (and families in the FSP) | Cross-sectional (CDS-PSID) | 772 5–12-year-old children | Food-insecure girls who participated in all 3 programmes had 68% reduced odds of being at risk of overweight. Participation had no association with risk of overweight for girls in food-secure households or any boys. |
Kohn et al. | 2014 | US | SNAP, WIC, School meals' | Children/mothers | Cross-sectional (NHANES) | 1321 children aged 4 to 17 from low-income families | Food assistance programme participation is associated with increased BMI-Z and waist circumference among food-secure children, but not among food-insecure children. |
Korenman et al. | 2013 | USA | Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) | Children | Cross-sectional (early childhood longitudinal study-birth cohort) | 4250 4-year-olds | Among low-income children, CACFP participation moderately increases probability of RDA consumption of milk (6–7%) and vegetables (9–11%), and may also reduce the prevalence of overweight and underweight (effect of 0.5% reduced odds among low-income, non-head start children). |
Klerman et al. | 2017 | US | SEBTC-SNAP | Households with school-age children who, in the prior school year, were certified for FRP school meals by the school food authorities | RCT | 48,449 households | Weekly electronic benefit transfer reduced children’s very low food security by 1/3 and children’s food insecurity by 1/5. $60 benefit had a significantly larger effect on children’s food insecurity than $30, with the exception of children’s very low food security, for which $30 transfer accounted for 2.4 of the 3% reduction. |
Kreider et al. | 2012 | US | SNAP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional: NHANES | 4418 income-eligible children | Under the assumptions that individuals may participate in SNAP due to expecting to be food-insecure and that poor health weakly decreases with family resources, estimates indicate that the programme has reduced the prevalence of food insecurity by at least 28% and poor health by at least 54%. |
Kreider et al. | 2016 | US | WIC | Women and children | Cohort study: NHANES | 4614 children | WIC reduces the prevalence of child food insecurity by at least 3.6 percentage points (20%). |
Loibl et al. | 2017 | US | The Individual Development Account (IDA) programme | Low-income families/individuals | Longitudinal experimental study | 639 participants in the IDA scheme | No significant differences in levels of food insecurity based on programme status. |
Mabli et al. | 2014 | US | SNAP | Low-income households | Experimental: new users vs current users | 2717 households | SNAP participation associated with ~ 1/3 decrease in odds of child food insecurity and a decrease in the odds of children experiencing severe food insecurity. |
Nalty et al. | 2013 | US | SNAP, NSLP | Children/mothers | Longitudinal questionnaire study | 40 mother-child dyads | School-based nutrition programmes (WIC, NSLP, SBP) reduced the odds of child food insecurity by 74%. |
Nguyen et al. | 2017 | US | SNAP and NSLP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional | 4719 children and adolescents | Among SNAP participants and non-participants, there was no significant relationship between household food security and BMI. Among NSLP participants, non-significant trend towards increasing BMI percentile with decreasing household food security in those reporting less than 3 lunches per week |
Sharkey et al. | 2013 | US | NSLP SNAP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional (colonia–household and community food resource assessment) | 470 adults in Texas border region with at least one child in household | NSLP participation associated with increased odds of child hunger whilst SNAP participation associated with decreased odds for child hunger |
Zhang et al. | 2017 | US | SNAP | Low-income households | Cross-sectional (Current Population Survey-Food Security Supplement-CPS-FSS) | 1826 families | SNAP participation increases the probabilities of children’s low food security by 6.1% and very low food security by 2.7%. |