Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
Diet during infancy and early childhood can have implications on child growth, health, and developmental trajectories. Yet, poor dietary habits are common in young children, who often consume diets that are not aligned with dietary recommendations. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a recommended setting to deliver healthy eating interventions as they offer existing infrastructure and access to a large number of children. This protocol aims to describe the methods of a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of healthy eating interventions conducted within the ECEC setting to improve child diet.
Methods and analysis
Eight electronic databases including Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL Complete, PsycINFO, ERIC, SCOPUS, and SPORTDiscus will be searched from conception to March 2020. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) of dietary interventions targeting children aged up to 6 years conducted within the ECEC setting (including pre-schools, kindergartens, long day care, and family day care) will be included in the review. The primary review outcome is any measure of child dietary intake. Secondary outcomes include (i) child anthropometrics, (ii) child cognition, (iii) child mental health, (iv) child quality of life, (v) the absolute cost or cost-effectiveness of included interventions, and (vi) any reported adverse effects. Study inclusion, data extraction, and risk of bias assessments will be performed independently by two reviewers. Meta-analyses will be performed if adequate data is available, else review findings will be described narratively.
Discussion
This systematic review seeks to synthesise the effectiveness of healthy eating interventions conducted within the ECEC setting for improving child diet. This review will also seek to describe the effect of ECEC-based healthy eating interventions on a variety of important secondary outcomes (adverse events and cost-effectiveness) that will enhance the public health policy and practice relevance of review findings.
Systematic review registration
PROSPERO [ID CRD42020153188]
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
National Heart Foundation of Australia
Australian Research Council
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference56 articles.
1. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden of Disease Data 2014 [cited 2019 Sept] Available from: http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/data.
2. Shrestha R, Copenhaver M. Long-term effects of childhood risk factors on cardiovascular health during adulthood. Clin Med Rev Vasc Health. 2015;7:1.
3. Lock K, Pomerleau J, Causer L, Altmann DR, McKee M. The global burden of disease attributable to low consumption of fruit and vegetables: implications for the global strategy on diet. Bull World Health Organ. 2005;83:100–8.
4. Deloitte Access Economics. The impact of increasing vegetable consumption on health expenditure 2016 [cited 2019 Sept]. Available from: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-increasing-vegetable-consumption-health-expenditure-impact-040716.pdf.
5. Waxman A. Prevention of chronic diseases: WHO global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Food Nutr Bull. 2003;24(3):281–4.