ArticlePublic health nutrition2020
The importance of school lunches to the overall dietary intake of children in Sweden: a nationally representative study.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Universal School-Based Parental Support for Children's Healthy Diet and Physical Activity-the Healthy School Start Plus Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2024Trial
- Analysis of Association between Adolescents' Food Habits and Body Mass Change in a Population-Based Sample: Diet and Activity of Youth during COVID-19 (DAY-19) Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Sustainable and acceptable school meals through optimization analysis: an intervention study.Nutrition journal · 2020Trial
- Exploring dietary patterns during school hours in Swedish adolescent student population, focusing on out-of-school eating and snacking: a repeated cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Equal school meals for all - differentiation of school meals according to school social index.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Addressing Childhood Malnutrition in Europe: Policy Approaches to Promote Healthy Eating in Young Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Impacts of Global School Feeding Programmes on Children's Health and Wellbeing Outcomes: A Scoping Review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- School food programs and food insecurity at the REACH school network: an observational study.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- The School Food Environment in Ghana is Associated With Dietary Diversity and Anemia: Findings From the 2022 National Nutrition and Health Survey of In-School Adolescents.Food and nutrition bulletin · 2025Article
- Article
- Design, Methods, and Participation in Riksmaten Young Children-A Swedish National Dietary Survey.Current developments in nutrition · 2024Article
- Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Catering in Secondary Schools-An Analysis of a Transformation Process with Multiple Tensions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Unpacking the cost of the lunchbox for Australian families: a secondary analysis.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- Implementation and effectiveness of a school-based intervention to increase adherence to national school meal guidelines: a non-randomised controlled trial.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Sixteen-year trends in fruit consumption and related socioeconomic inequalities among adolescents in Western European countries.European journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- High availability of vegetables and fruit through government-funded school lunch is not reflected in 4th grade pupils' intake.Food & nutrition research · 2023Article
- Which factors promote and prohibit successful implementation and normalization of a healthy school lunch program at primary schools in the Netherlands?Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2022Article
- Investigation of the Associations between Diet Quality and Health-Related Quality of Life in a Sample of Swedish Adolescents.Nutrients · 2022Article
- The food and nutrient intake of 5- to 12-year-old Australian children during school hours: a secondary analysis of the 2011-2012 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey.Public health nutrition · 2021Article
- IMplementation and evaluation of the school-based family support PRogram a Healthy School Start to promote child health and prevent OVErweight and obesity (IMPROVE) - study protocol for a cluster-randomized trial.BMC public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveSchool lunches have potential to foster healthy diets in all children, but data on their importance are relatively scarce. The current study aimed to describe the dietary intake from school lunches by sex and school grade, and to assess how the daily intake, school lunch intake and the daily intake provided by lunch differ by sex and parental education.
designCross-sectional. All foods and drinks consumed for 1-3 weekdays were self-reported. Energy, absolute and energy-adjusted intakes of nutrients and food groups were calculated per weekday and per school lunch. Mixed-effects linear models assessed sociodemographic differences in dietary intakes. Nutrient and energy density at lunch and during the rest of the day were compared.
settingSeventy-nine Swedish primary schools.
participantsPupils in grades 5 and 8 (N 2002), nationally representative.
resultsLunch provided around half of daily vegetable intake and two-thirds of daily fish intake. Nutrient density was higher and energy density lower at lunch compared with the rest of the day (P < 0·001). Boys had greater energy-adjusted intakes of red/processed meat and lower intakes of vegetables and dietary fibre compared with girls (P < 0·001), overall and at lunch. Daily energy-adjusted intakes of most nutrients/food groups were lower for pupils of lower-educated parents compared with pupils of parents with higher education, but at lunch, only Fe and fibre intakes were significantly lower in this group.
conclusionsSchool lunches are making a positive contribution to the diets of Swedish children and may mitigate well-established sex differences and social inequalities in dietary intake.
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