Diet quality of elementary and middle school teachers is associated with healthier nutrition-related classroom practices.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
Many schools have implemented policies and programs to address childhood obesity. However, few have evaluated obesity-related health behaviors among teachers, or how these behaviors may be associated with teachers' nutrition-related practices in the classroom setting. This cross-sectional study utilized data from teachers employed in 20 schools representing three public school districts in a mid-Atlantic state from 2017 to 2019 to examine associations between teachers' diet quality and their nutrition-related classroom practices (e.g. rewarding students with food; modeling healthy diet behaviors). Measures included: one 24-h dietary recall summarized via healthy eating index (HEI-2015; higher scores indicate better diet quality; Range: 0-100); demographics, self-reported height/weight (BMI; ≥25 kg/m2 = overweight/obese), and nutrition-related classroom practices (10 item survey; sum score range: 0-40; alpha = 0.65; higher score = more health-promoting practices). Associations between HEI and nutrition-related classroom practices were assessed in multilevel models, adjusting for covariates (gender, race/ethnicity, age, income, BMI, years teaching) and controlling for within-school effects. Of 331 teachers recruited, 116 (35.0%) completed both the optional dietary recall and incentivized survey (analytic sample: 89% female; 45% black; 79% overweight/obese; BMI = 30.5 ± 7.1; aged 41.1 ± 11.8 years). Means and standard deviations were calculated for HEI (52.2 ± 12.2) and nutrition-related classroom practices sum score (25.4 ± 5.9). For every one-unit increase in HEI, there was a 0.20 increase in nutrition-related classroom practices score (SE = 0.05; p < 0.001), which remained significant in the adjusted model. To better inform obesity prevention efforts, future studies should collect data among both students and teachers and explore the mechanisms through which teacher health behaviors may impact student health behaviors.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Parker, EA; Feinberg, TM; Lane, HG; Deitch, R; Zemanick, A; Saksvig, BI; Turner, L; Hager, ER
Published Date
- June 2020
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 18 /
Start / End Page
- 101087 -
PubMed ID
- 32309116
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC7155219
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 2211-3355
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101087
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States