Search

Ninety per cent of Australian school children bring a home-packed lunch to school, with 44% of the food consumed during school hours being unhealthy. Among other factors, cost is a key consideration for food provision; however, the costs to Australian families are not well understood. Therefore, we aimed to determine what families are currently paying for school lunchboxes in Australian primary schools and to examine associations between food costs and socio-demographic factors with dietary quality. An audit of local retail outlets was used to determine the food costs of lunchbox contents. Costs (AUD) were adjusted for inflation as of early 2023. The lunchboxes of 1026 children aged 4–12 years at 12 Catholic primary schools in New South Wales, Australia, were assessed at the start of the day, using photography assessment methods and a validated School Food Checklist. The mean cost of lunchbox contents was $4.48 AUD (SD 1.53), containing a mean energy of 2699 kJ (SD 859), with 37.3% (SD 23.9) of energy sourced from unhealthy foods. Multiple linear regression analyses found that the strongest predictors of higher lunchbox cost (P  < 0.05) were a higher proportion of energy from unhealthy foods (B  = 0.016) and lower Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (B = −0.178), when controlling for child socio-demographics. The results indicated that lunchbox food costs to Australian families are comparable to alternative school food service models in Australia and internationally. Results demonstrate the cost of food is not the only barrier to providing a healthy school lunchbox. Demonstrating a need for cost-considerate systematic interventions addressing food provision challenges and socio-economic disparities faced by families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To (i) describe the adaptation of the Short Food Survey (SFS) for assessing the dietary intake of children (2-5 years) during attendance at Early Childhood Education and Care (SFS-ECEC); (ii) determine the acceptability and feasibility of the SFS-ECEC; and (iii) compare the SFS-ECEC to direct observations for assessing dietary intake of children in care.Design: The adapted forty-seven-item SFS-ECEC was completed by childcare educators to capture individual child's usual intake over the past month. Acceptability and feasibility were assessed via educator self-report and completion rates. Mean servings of food groups consumed in accordance with dietary guidelines reported in the SFS-ECEC were compared to those obtained by a single-day direct observation via visual estimation conducted by trained personnel. Mean differences, intra-class correlations, Bland-Altman plots, percentage agreement and Cohen's κ were examined.Setting: Early Childhood Education and Care, NSW, Australia.Participants: Educators and children.Results: 213 (98·61 %) SFS-ECECs were returned. Acceptability was high with 86·54 % of educators reporting the tool as easy to understand. Mean differences in servings of food groups between the SFS-ECEC and direct observation were statistically significantly different for five out of six foods and ranged 0·08-1·07, with intra-class correlations ranging 0·00-0·21. Agreement between the methods in the classification of children meeting or not meeting dietary guidelines ranged 42·78-93·01 %, with Cohen's κ ranging -0·03 to 0·14.Conclusions: The SFS-ECEC is acceptable and feasible for completion by childcare educators. While tool refinement and further validation is warranted, small mean differences suggest the tool may be useful in estimating group-level intakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]