Parental Reports of Lunch-Packing Behaviours Lack Accuracy: Reported Barriers and Facilitators to Packing School Lunches

作者：Hawthorne Dana L; Neilson Lisa J; Macaskill Lesley A; Luk Jonathan M H; Horner Erica J; Parks Colleen A; Salvadori Marina I; Seabrook Jamie A; Dworatzek Paula D N

来源：Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 2018, 79(3): 99-105.

DOI：10.3148/cjdpr-2018-011

Purpose: Parents influence the foods their children consume and often provide proxy reports of this intake. One way parents exert this influence is by providing home-packed lurches. This study compared parental reports of foods packed in children's lunches with what was actually packed and identified parental barriers and facilitators to packing lunches.
Methods: Grade 3 and 4 student-parent dyads (n = 321) in 19 elementary schools in Ontario participated. Parental reports and actual packed lunch contents were collected via self-administered surveys and direct observation, respectively. Parental barriers and facilitators were obtained through open and closed survey questions.
Results: Median portions packed were significantly higher for sugar-sweetened beverages and snacks and significantly lower for fruits, fruit juice, vegetables, milk/alternatives, and meat/alternatives than parents reported. Packing a healthy lunch was "important/very important/of the utmost importance for 95.9% of respondents, and 97.5% perceived their nutrition knowledge as "adequate/good/very good". Barriers to packing a lunch included: child's food preferences, time, finances, allergy policies, and food safety. Nutrition resources, observing other children's lunches, child's input, and planning ahead were identified as facilitators.
Conclusions: Strategies to improve packed lunches should move beyond parental nutrition knowledge and importance of lunch packing to address parental barriers and facilitators.

• 出版日期2018-9