ArticlePreventive medicine reports2020
Using digital imagery to quantify students' added sugar intake at lunch in Title I schools with universal free meals.
Article in Preventive medicine reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Universal free school meals and Medicaid spending: evidence from linked education and claims data in Arkansas.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Salad bars and energy intake in Virginia elementary schools with free meals.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
School meals are a major source of dietary intake for low-income students at high obesity risk. Associations between added sugar and obesity are well known, and the National School Lunch Program prohibits added sugar in fruit and juice; yet, no added sugar limits exist for other meal components. This study measured students' added sugar selection and consumption in school lunches and compared % of daily calories consumed from added sugar to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommendations. In October 2016, this cross-sectional study was conducted in six Virginia Title I elementary schools (>90% racial/ethnic minorities; 100% free meals). Digital imagery plate waste methods assessed lunch consumption in N = 1155, 1st-5th graders. Added sugar (g, %kcal) in foods and beverages selected and consumed were quantified, and kcal of added sugar consumed was compared to DGA recommendations. Students consumed an average 6.6 g of added sugar from foods (grade differences; q = 0.0012), and 3.6 g of added sugar from beverages. Added sugar comprised ~10% of school lunch calories consumed from foods and ~35% of school lunch calories consumed from beverages. Added sugar in the total school lunch meal comprised ~2.5% of student's recommended daily calorie needs; thus, ~7.5% of daily calories from added sugar remained before students would have exceeded the DGA. Total added sugar consumption was within daily DGA recommendations. Findings contribute to previous reports that school-provided lunches are low in added sugar. Future research should examine added sugar consumed in school breakfast and lunch separately and combined.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.