Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Pediatric Nutrition
• Evidence-Based Interventions

Background:

• Insufficient fruit and vegetable intake in childhood elevates the risk of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease.
• Interventions targeting child-feeding strategies or home/childcare environments are crucial for reducing future disease burden.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and adverse events of interventions aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five and under.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review and meta-analysis of 80 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 12,965 participants.
• Inclusion criteria: Interventions targeting fruit/vegetable intake in children ≤5 years with dietary or biochemical assessment.
• Data extraction and risk of bias assessment conducted by independent reviewers; random-effects models used for meta-analyses.

Main Results:

• Multicomponent interventions showed a small effect on fruit and vegetable consumption (0.34 cups/day increase) with moderate-quality evidence.
• Child-feeding practices demonstrated a small positive effect on vegetable intake (5.30g increase) with low-quality evidence.
• Effectiveness of parent or child nutrition education interventions remains uncertain due to very low to low-quality evidence.

Conclusions:

• Current evidence suggests that multicomponent interventions and child-feeding practices lead to only small increases in fruit and vegetable consumption in young children.
• High-quality evidence and long-term follow-up (≥12 months) are needed to determine the true effectiveness and sustainability of these interventions.
• Further research should employ more rigorous methodologies to advance the field of pediatric nutrition interventions.