A growing body of research shows that students’ health can impact on their learning outcomes, presenting implications for schools worldwide.
The United Nations has estimated that over the next decade, the number of overweight children under five will jump from 42 million to 70 million.
Being places where children spend a large portion of their time, schools have a critical role to play in educating them about the benefits of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Recognising this, a new research project in Newcastle is helping parents and carers create healthier lunchboxes for children.
New Lambton Heights Infants School in Newcastle has played host to the launch of the Swap What’s Packed in the lunchbox (SWAP-It) app, which is being funded through a $500,000 grant from nib foundation.
Lead researcher, associate professor, Luke Wolfenden, said SWAP-It aimed to address the nutritional intake of children to align it with dietary guidelines and prevent unhealthy weight gain in childhood.
“Good nutrition is one of the most important determinants of children’s health and wellbeing,” associate professor Wolfenden said.
“Within the Hunter New England region, more than 135,000 lunchboxes are packed for primary-aged school children every day. These lunchboxes provide the fuel for young growing minds, containing a third of their daily intake.”
However, Wolfenden said that packed within these lunchboxes are more than 270,000 items of junk food that are “cleverly packaged” and presented to children to be consumed each day.
“The consumption of these foods is contributing to excessive energy intake, unhealthy weight gain, diabetes and other health issues that impact on children’s physical and mental health and can lead to chronic health conditions in adulthood,” he said.
To address the limitations of previous tactics to improve lunchbox content, the research team established a partnership with leading national provider of a school-parent communication app - ‘Skoolbag’, to develop and integrate the lunchbox program within the app.
The program includes three components: SWAP-It nutrition guidelines; weekly support messages via push notifications; and resources such as hyperlinks to useful information, lunchbox planners, drink bottles, ice bricks and shopping lists as visual prompts to pack healthy lunchbox foods at home.
SWAP-It will be delivered to 150 primary schools across the Hunter New England region, directly benefitting approximately 75,000 students and 60,000 families over the three year period.
nib foundation director, Michelle McPherson, said with obesity posing a health and social burden estimated to cost $58bn per year, and 27% of Australian children now classified as obese or overweight, there was an imperative to improve the food habits of the next generation.
“Implementing a widely accessible program that prevents unhealthy weight gain from occurring in the first place is recommended as one of the most cost-effective approaches to improving community health and wellbeing,” McPherson said.