Parental support in promoting children’s health behaviours and preventing overweight and obesity – a long-term follow-up of the cluster-randomised healthy school start study II trial

Table 1 Descriptive characteristics at baseline (T1) categorised by intervention and control group

	Total	Intervention	Control	p	n
	n = 215	n = 97	n = 118
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Girls (%)	49.3	53.6	45.8	0.25	215
Age (years)	6.3 (0.3)	6.3 (0.3)	6.3 (0.3)	0.93	215
Parental low education per family (%)	51.2	50.0	52.3	0.74	203
Parents born outside the Nordic region (%)	87.9	85.3	90.2	0.3	207
Anthropometry
Waist circumference (cm)	56.7 (5.9)	56.7 (6.2)	56.6 (5.1)	0.91	215
Body mass index (kg/m2)	16.9 (2.5)	17.0 (2.6)	16.9 (2.5)	0.75	215
BMI sds^a	0.71 (1.41)	0.75 (1.39)	0.67 (1.43)	0.71	215
Normal weight^b (%)	67.0	69.1	65.3	0.56	215
Overweight^b (%)	15.3	15.5	15.3	0.97	215
Obese ^b (%)	11.6	11.3	11.9	0.90	215
Underweight^b (%)	6.0	4.1	7.6	0.28	215
Screen time
Television/computer time (minutes/day)	129 (71)	127 (74)	130 (68)	0.75	178
Physical activity
Children active in organised activity (%)	47.3	52.4	42.2	0.26	129
Diet (servings the previous day)
Fruit juice¹	0.61 (0.73)	0.62 (0.79)	0.6 (0.66)	0.73	148
Soft drink¹	0.28 (0.54)	0.24 (0.49)	0.33 (0.58)	0.45	138
Flavoured milk¹	0.30 (0.60)	0.21 (0.41)	0.39 (0.73)	0.21	139
Vegetables¹	1.07 (0.80)	1.01 (0.82)	1.12 (0.77)	0.63	168
Fruits¹	1.67 (1.0)	1.6 (0.88)	1.76 (1.08)	0.67	175
Snacks (crisps and cheese doodles)¹	0.33 (0.66)	0.25 (0.52)	0.41 (0.77)	0.19	157
Chocolate/sweets¹	0.53 (0.74)	0.42 (0.69)	0.64 (0.79)	0.17	165
Ice-cream¹	0.52 (0.80)	0.35 (0.59)	0.69 (0.93)	0.08	168
Cake/buns/cookies¹	0.55 (0.75)	0.48 (0.69)	0.62 (0.79)	0.57	164
Unhealthy foods²	1.77 (2.22)	1.37 (1.94)	2.16 (2.40)	0.05	173
Healthy foods²	2.90 (1.56)	2.87 (1.71)	2.92 (1.4)	0.7	177
Unhealthy drinks²	0.61 (1.08)	0.54 (1.15)	0.67 (1.01)	0.37	161

p = between intervention and control groups
BMI sds: body mass index standard deviation score,
^aDefined according to Karlberg et al. [20]
^bDefined according to Cole et al. [21]
¹Serving sizes (examples below):
Snacks = 1.5 dl of crisps or cheese doodles
Sweets = about 1.5 dl of sweets or 4 pieces from a chocolate bar
Cakes = a small bun or 5 small biscuits
Ice-cream = a small ice cream bar or 1 dl ice-cream
Drinks = 1.5 dl
Vegetables = 2 dl grated carrots/cabbage or a large tomato or 2–3 broccoli heads
Fruits = a small apple or a bunch of grapes (about 10)
²Aggregated variables: unhealthy foods (snacks, sweets/chocolate, ice-cream, cakes/buns/cookies), healthy foods (fruit and vegetables) and unhealthy drinks (soft drink, flavoured milk, and fruit juice > 1 serving)

ISSN: 1471-2431