ArticleMaternal and child health journal2024
A Missed Opportunity? Meal Provision in Early Childhood Education and Care Services in the Context of Socioeconomic Disadvantage.
Article in Maternal and child health journal, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Beyond Local Champions: Contextual Factors Shaping the Implementation of Healthy Eating Interventions in Centre-Based Care - A Qualitative Study With Educators and Cooks.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- From policy to plate: stakeholder perspectives on nutrition policy in Australian early childhood education environments.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Meals, mealtimes and moments for learning: assessment of quality in early childhood education and care services.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Children's Diets and Planetary Health: A Study in Wroclaw, Poland, and Sydney, Australia.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesEarly childhood education and care (ECEC) services are attended by most children before school entry, reaching many living in circumstances of poverty and providing opportunity to support their nutrition. In this study, we examine the extent to which this opportunity is being met, comparing two common types of service provision: centre- versus family- provided food.
methodsIntensive in-situ observations were undertaken across 10 ECEC services in highly disadvantaged Australian communities. All meals provided to children aged 3.5-5 years across an ECEC day (N = 48), of which 11% were experiencing severe food insecurity, were photographed and analysed to assess nutritional adequacy with reference to national dietary standards.
resultsMeals provided did not meet national dietary recommendations for quality or quantity. Nutrition was least adequate in services with policies of family-provided food. These services were also those that served families experiencing the highest levels of severe food insecurity (29%).
conclusionsIn the absence of policies for the provision of food in ECEC, services are not realising their potential to support child nutrition in the context of poverty presenting increased risk to lifetime trajectories of health and wellbeing. System level policy interventions are required to facilitate equitable access to nutritious food and attendant life chances.
Indexed as
Identifiers
38015389What 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.