Design and implementation of a 5-year school-based nutrition education intervention

Objective: To describe the research methods of a multicomponent nutrition education program empowering teachers to improve nutrition literacy and prevent obesity among elementary school students. Design: Prospective 5-year study following a pre-post intervention design. Setting: Four elementary schools in a high-needs area in Washington, DC: 2 intervention and 2 comparison schools. Participants: Approximately 100 teachers (25/school) and 800 students (200/school) enrolled over the study period. Intervention: Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 will engage teachers as agents of change by designing, implementing, and evaluating a structured professional development program to support the integration of nutrition concepts in the classroom. Main Outcome Measures: Change in pre-post survey assessment of students’ nutrition literacy, attitudes, and intent; change in teachers’ self-efficacy toward teaching nutrition; fruit and vegetable consumption data collected 6 times/y in the cafeteria. Analysis: Process evaluation throughout the study to document implementation and challenges. Multilevel mixed modeling will be used to determine the impact of the intervention.