2025 Volume 33 Issue 2 Pages 100-109
Objective: To assess the impact of interventions on optimizing school lunch intake among first-year junior high school students.
Methods: Participants were 185 first-year junior high school students in Kumamoto City, Japan. A lesson on “eating an appropriate amount of school lunch” was given to the entire target group during the health and physical education and technology and home economics classes (one hour each). In addition, 25 students with consistently low food intake were provided individualized guidance by a diet and nutrition teacher. All students measured and recorded their school lunch intake for three days before and after the intervention. To evaluate whether the energy intake from school lunches approached the individual’s estimated energy requirement (×33%), the absolute difference between the individual’s energy intake determined from the weighing school lunch intake survey and the individual’s estimated energy requirement (×33%) was used as an evaluation index and compared before and after the intervention.
Results: The median absolute difference between energy intake and estimated requirements (×33%) did not change in the boys. However, in girls, the median absolute difference decreased post-intervention (89 kcal in September and 63 kcal in March, P=0.025), bringing the energy intake closer to the estimated requirement (×33%).
Conclusion: After the intervention, a positive change in school lunch intake was observed among girls. Further studies are needed to determine whether this was due to instructions.
