School-based intervention to promote eating daily and healthy breakfast: A survey and a case–control study

Background/Objective: The recent rapid increase in childhood obesity rates suggests that a consideration of the role of the schools in addressing this problem is necessary. ‘Fits me’ program functions to promote eating daily and healthy breakfast among elementary school children. Methods: Separate children groups were sampled each year by clusters from seven regions around Israel. They filled a self-administered questionnaire at the beginning of 2003, before the program started, and in 2003–2005, after the program. A separate sample was collected in 2006 in a case–control structure. The answer to the question: ‘what do you eat for breakfast?’ considered as a healthy breakfast if it included one of the following food items: A sandwich (not including chocolate, jam or butter), cereals, vegetable, fruit, egg and dairy product. Results: As compared with 2003 before the program, more children reported eating daily breakfast over the years (51–65% before and until 2005, respectively, P for trend