HEART HEALTHY EATING BEHAVIORS OF CHILDREN FOLLOWING A SCHOOL-BASED INTERVENTION: A META-ANALYSIS

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to estimate the effects of school-based interventions on heart healthy eating behaviors of fourth and fifth grade students. The overall effect size (d value) across 12 studies was. 24. The 95% confidence interval ranged from. 174 to. 301. It can be concluded that the school-based cardiovascular health promotion programs had a significant effect on the heart healthy eating behaviors of student participants. Recommendations include identification of reliable measures and inclusion of culturally diverse populations in future studies.This research was supported by the University of Maryland Claude B. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center from the National Institute on Aging, NIH IP60AG-12583.