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Developing a mobile application to increase pre-schoolers’ vegetable acceptance and self-regulation skills – The ‘Mole Minds Veggies’ game
- Henna Vepsäläinen, Essi Skaffari, Carola Ray, Eira Suhonen, Mikko Lehtovirta, Nina Sajaniemi, Maijaliisa Erkkola
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 79 / Issue OCE2 / 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 June 2020, E270
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Introduction:
Many pre-schoolers in Finland eat too little vegetables, fruits and berries. Compared to fruits, vegetables are in general less well accepted. Since most of the Finnish 4–6-year-olds attend pre-schools, they are an ideal setting for promoting vegetable consumption. However, early educators in the pre-schools need engaging methods for food education. The aim of this project is to develop a mobile application that can be used in pre-schools to improve vegetable acceptance among pre-schoolers. An additional aim of the application is to increase self-regulation skills, i.e., we aimed to build the application in a way that, instead of immediate reward and impulsivity encourages self-regulation and delayed gratification.
Materials and methods:We organized workshops in three pre-schools in order to collect ideas and experiences from pre-schoolers and early childhood professionals. Based on the workshops, a Finnish educational game company NordicEdu designed the first version of the prototype. A multi-professional team with expertise in early childhood education and pre-schoolers’ health behaviours commented the prototype, which was then updated and uploaded to application stores. The prototype consisted of two sections: a teacher-led ‘Learn’ section that encourages a group of children to share their knowledge and feelings about vegetables and fruits with each other and mini-games as well as physical exercises that can be played in a group. The application also allows the group to record which vegetables they have tasted. The feasibility of the prototype was tested in the three pre-schools. We collected feedback from the early childhood professionals and children with video-recordings and interviews.
Results:Based on the feasibility tests, the children enjoyed using the application and they also gave positive feedback about the visual identity of the application. However, the early childhood professionals thought that the application could be a bit more challenging. Additional contents as well as tasks requiring more self-regulation and patience were also hoped for.
Discussion:In 2019, the prototype will be further developed into a full demo. Additional vegetables will be added to the ‘Learn’ sections and organized into seasons. The application will be accompanied by a teacher's guide containing more information about the vegetables and fruits. The full demo will be completed in spring 2019 and translated into English and Polish. The effectiveness of the application to increase the acceptability of vegetables will be tested in a randomized intervention in pre-schools in Finland, Poland and the UK.
Long-term stress and diet among Finnish pre-schoolers
- Henna Vepsäläinen, Hannele Sorvari, Elviira Lehto, Katri Sääksjärvi, Marja Leppänen, Mari Nislin, Kaija Nissinen, Leena Koivusilta, Carola Ray, Eira Suhonen, Nina Sajaniemi, Maijaliisa Erkkola
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 79 / Issue OCE2 / 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 June 2020, E154
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- Article
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Introduction
Studying the link between children's stress and diet is crucial, as early childhood is an important period for the development of eating habits as well as other health behaviours. Among adults, studies have shown that elevated cortisol levels (indicator of long-term stress) might be associated with overweight and a preference for energy-dense foods. However, the association between hair cortisol concentration (HCC) and diet among pre-school-aged children is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether HCC, a measure of long-term stress, is associated with diet among 3–6-year-old Finnish children.
Materials and methodsThe current cross-sectional study is a part of the DAGIS study conducted in 66 Finnish pre-schools in 2015–2016. Of the 864 participating pre-schoolers, 578 (67%) provided the information needed to examine the association between HCC and diet. HCC was measured from 4-cm hair samples using a chemiluminescence immunoassay, and the HCCs were categorized into fifths. The parents of the participating children filled in a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) assessing the child's food consumption outside preschool hours. The FFQ items (n = 47) were used as inputs in principal component analysis to derive dietary patterns. The associations between HCC and food group consumption frequencies as well as dietary pattern scores for ‘sweets-and-treats’, ‘health-conscious’ and ‘vegetables-and-processed meats’ patterns were examined with multilevel linear mixed models and adjusted for age, gender and parental education.
ResultsThe median HCC was 11.7 pg/mg (min 0.24, max 879.6). Compared to the children who had the lowest HCCs, the children with the highest HCCs consumed vegetables as well as fruits and berries less frequently (β = -1.62, 95% CI -3.14, -0.09; β = -1.49, 95% CI -2.95, -0.04) and scored lower on the ‘health-conscious’ dietary pattern (β = -0.31, 95% CI -0.51, -0.11). After adjustments, the associations between HCC and fruit and berry and sugary beverage consumption as well as ‘health-conscious’ pattern were significant (β = -1.62, 95% CI -3.09, -0.16; β = 1.30, 95% CI 0.06, 2.54; β = -0.33, 95% CI -0.53, -0.14).
DiscussionThis study supports the link between long-term stress and lower-quality diet, as it showed that elevated HCCs and less healthful diets were connected already in the early childhood. However, because of the cross-sectional design of the study, we are not able to conclude whether stress affects diet or vice versa. Nevertheless, these results give reason to further investigate the relationship between stress and children's eating habits as well as health in general.