Impact of the Pathways food service intervention on breakfast served in American-Indian schools.
BACKGROUND
Pathways was a multisite, multicomponent obesity prevention intervention for American-Indian schoolchildren. The goal of the school breakfast and lunch component was to reduce fat content of school meals to 30% or fewer calories from fat without compromising dietary quality.


METHODS
An intensive 3-year intervention was implemented with school food service staff. Five consecutive days of school breakfast menu and recipe information was collected at 20 control and 19 intervention schools at four time intervals. Data were analyzed at nutrient and (in final year) food levels.


RESULTS
Average total fat decreased in intervention schools from 16.0 grams at baseline to 13.6 grams by end of study, compared with 16.6 and 16.7 grams at baseline and final measurement in control schools (P<0.030). Percentage of calories from saturated fat were also significantly reduced from 12.0 to 8.9%, compared with 12.1 to 10.6% in control schools (P<0.014). There were no significant differences in total energy or other nutrients by treatment condition across four time points. Food-level data revealed a consistent pattern of more lower-fat items served in intervention schools compared to control schools.


CONCLUSIONS
Pathways was successful in achieving its overall goal of reducing dietary fat in meals served for school breakfasts.
Cunningham-Sabo
Leslie
L
Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. lcsabo@unm.edu
Snyder
M Patricia
MP
Anliker
Jean
J
Thompson
Janice
J
Weber
Judith L
JL
Thomas
Olivia
O
Ring
Kimberly
K
Stewart
Dawn
D
Platero
Harrison
H
Nielsen
Linda
L
D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009753:Nutritive Value; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011322:Primary Prevention; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools; D014481:United States