Aims: School lunches are provided free in Sweden, although some children choose not to eat school lunch. The aim of this study was to analyse Swedish children’s total energy and nutrient intakes on weekdays by the frequency of school lunch consumption and to analyse energy and nutrient intakes from school lunches by sex. Factors associated with children’s school lunch habits were also studied. Methods: Children in grades 2 and 5 (n=1905) completed a food diary (school lunch data available for 1840 children) and the mean energy and nutrient intakes per day and per school lunch were calculated. The children also completed questions on the frequency of school lunch consumption and school lunch habits. Logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with school lunch habits. Results: Children who reported eating school lunch every day had significantly higher energy and absolute nutrient intakes than children reporting eating school lunch less than five times a week, but not standardized for energy. Boys had significantly higher energy and absolute nutrient intakes from school lunches than girls, but not standardized for energy. Younger children and children who liked school lunches had higher odds of eating school lunch every day. Children in grade 5, those with a foreign background and those disliking school lunches had higher odds of omitting the main lunch component. Conclusions: Regular school lunch consumption was associated with a higher total intake for most nutrients, but not a better nutrient density. School lunch habits were associated with age, ethnic background and liking school lunches.
TikkanenIUrhoU-M. Free school meals, the plate model and food choices in Finland. Br Food J2009;111:102–19.
2.
Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. Education and research in Estonia 2007, www.hm.ee/index.php?148635 (2007, accessed 13 April 2012).
National Food Agency. Good school meals. Guidelines for primary schools, secondary schools and youth recreation centres. Uppsala: National Food Agency, 2013.
6.
PattersonEElinderLS. Improvements in school meal quality in Sweden after the introduction of new legislation—a 2-year follow-up. Eur J Public Health2014;25:655–60.
7.
PattersonEQuetelA-KLiljaK. Design, testing and validation of an innovative web-based instrument to evaluate school meal quality. Public Health Nutr2013;16:1028–36.
8.
PattersonERegnanderMSchäfer ElinderL. Skolmat Sveriges kartläggning av skolmåltidens kvalitet. Läsåret 2014/15 [School Food Sweden’s Report on Swedish school meal quality 2014/15]. Solna: Centrum för epidemiologi och samhällsmedicin, 2015.
9.
HoppuULehtisaloJTapanainenH. Dietary habits and nutrient intake of Finnish adolescents. Public Health Nutr2010;13:965–72.
10.
Tilles-TirkkonenTPentikäinenSLappiJ. The quality of school lunch consumed reflects overall eating patterns in 11–16-year-old schoolchildren in Finland. Public Health Nutr2011;14:2092–8.
11.
BeckerW. Skolmåltider – de flesta äter bra men allt fler elever hoppar över både frukost och skollunch (School meals – most pupils eat well but more and more pupils skip both breakfast and school lunch). Vår Föda2000;52:17–21.
12.
Persson OsowskiCLindroosAKEnghardt BarbieriH. The contribution of school meals to energy and nutrient intake of Swedish children in relation to dietary guidelines. Food Nutr Res2015;59: 27563.
13.
BeckerWEnghardt BarbieriH. Svenska barns matvanor 2003 – resultat från enkätfrågor (Swedish children’s food habits 2003 – results from questionnaire items). Uppsala: National Food Administration, 2004.
14.
ElinderLHeinemansNZeebariZ. Longitudinal changes in health behaviours and body weight among Swedish school children – associations with age, gender and parental education – the SCIP school cohort. BMC Public Health2014;14:640.
15.
KainulainenKBennJFjellströmC. Nordic adolescents’ school lunch patterns and their suggestions for making healthy choices at school easier. Appetite2012;59:53–62.
16.
Enghardt BarbieriHPearsonMBeckerW. Riksmaten – barn 2003: livsmedels och näringsintag bland barn i Sverige (Riksmaten – children 2003: dietary habits and nutrient intake in Swedish children). Uppsala: National Food Administration, 2006.
17.
National Food Administration. Livsmedelsverkets livsmedelsdatabas, 04.1.1 ed. Uppsala: National Food Administration, 2004.
IBM Corporation. IBM SPSS statistics, 21.0 ed.Armonk, NY: IBM, 2012.
20.
PallantJ. SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill, 2013.
21.
TabachnickBGFidellLS. Using multivariate statistics. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.
22.
SjöbergAHallbergLHöglundD. Meal pattern, food choice, nutrient intake and lifestyle factors in the Göteborg Adolescence Study. Eur J Clin Nutr2003;57:1569–78.
23.
AndersenRBiltoft-JensenAChristensenT. Dietary effects of introducing school meals based on the New Nordic Diet – a randomised controlled trial in Danish children. The OPUS School Meal Study. Br J Nutr2014;111:1967–76.
24.
Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordic nutrition recommendations 2012. Integrating nutrition and physical activity. Copenhagen: Nord, 2014.
25.
TikkanenI. Pupils’ school meal diet behaviour in Finland: two clusters. Br Food J2009;111:223–34.
26.
HaapalahtiMMykkänenHTikkanenS. Meal patterns and food use in 10- to 11-year-old Finnish children. Public Health Nutr2003;6:365–70.
27.
Tilles-TirkkonenTSuominenSLiukkonenJ. Determinants of a regular intake of a nutritionally balanced school lunch among 10–17-year-old schoolchildren with special reference to sense of coherence. J Hum Nutr Diet2015;28:56–63.
