Outcome and process evaluation of a Norwegian school-randomized fruit and vegetable intervention

This study reports the effect of the Fruits and Vegetables Make the Marks intervention, a school-based fruit and vegetable intervention consisting of a home economics classroom com-ponent and parental involvement and encour-aged participation in the Norwegian School Fruit Programme, all delivered during the school year of 2001–02. Nine randomly chosen schools received the intervention and 10 schools served as control schools. Participating pupils completed questionnaires at baseline (September 2001), at Follow-up 1 (May–June 2002) and at Follow-up 2 (May 2003). A total of 369 pupils (69%; mean age, 11.3 years at baseline) participated in all three surveys. No effect of the intervention was found for intake of fruit and vegetables eaten at school or all day, neither at Follow-up 1 nor at Follow-up 2. On analysing the effects on potential mediators, significant differences between intervention and control groups were found for Awareness of the five-a-day recommendations only. The intervention programme was rated as very good by the teachers, and the pupils reported that they enjoyed it. However, the intervention failed to change fruit and vegetable intake, pro-bably because it did not succeed in changing the pupils ’ preferences for or the accessibility of fruit and vegetables—the two strongest corre-lates of children’s fruit and vegetable intake