title: Middle school-aged child enjoyment of food tastings predicted interest in nutrition education on osteoporosis prevention.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  NEEDs for Bones (NFB), based on the Health Belief Model, is a 4-lesson osteoporosis-prevention curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds. This study examined the relationship between enjoyment of food tastings and interest in NFB.
  
  
  METHODS
  NFB was administered by teachers as part of standard practice and evaluated after the fourth lesson using a 21-item survey. Significant clustering of students within classrooms required use of random-intercept multilevel ordinal regression models in SAS proc GLIMMIX, with students nested within classrooms. Analyses considered tasting experience, eating attitudes, sex, grade, and cohort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students (N = 1619; 50% girls) participated from 85 fourth to eighth grade classrooms (47% sixth grade and 31% seventh grade) in 16 Pennsylvania SNAP-Ed eligible schools over 2 academic years. For all foods tasted, students who did not enjoy the food tasting were less interested in the lesson than students who did enjoy the food tasting (all p < .001); refried beans (odds ratio [OR] = 0.30), soy milk (OR = 0.55), cranapple juice (OR = 0.51), sunflower kernels (OR = 0.48), and Swiss cheese (OR = 0.49). The relationship persisted net of covariates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Enjoyment of food tasting activities can predict interest in nutrition education on osteoporosis prevention, supporting resource allocation and inclusion of food tasting activities in school-age nutrition education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 110 Chandlee Laboratory, University Park, PA 16801. cheng.feon@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Feon W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, 103 Armsby Building, University Park, PA, 16801. smm67@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Shannon M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Monnat
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, NEEDs Center, 205 Chandlee Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802. lohse.ba@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lohse
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: child and adolescent health; curriculum; nutrition and diet; teaching techniques