Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39790039›Full record

ArticlePublic health nutrition2025

Developing and using a School Menu Healthiness Assessment Tool to analyse school food provision in Wales.

Alice Gilmour, Ruth Fairchild

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Public health nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

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2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Alice GilmourSchool of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-7602-9083
Ruth FairchildSchool of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-5251-7827

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo design and develop a new, innovative and valid School Menu Healthiness Assessment Tool that is suitable for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of school food and drink provision. Second, to analyse primary and secondary school menus and price lists pan-Wales to ascertain their healthiness and whether free school meal (FSM) eligible pupils can afford to access healthy, nutritious food across the school day.

designCodable items and categories of school food and drink provision were operationalised before the tool underwent iterative development and testing. Then, cross-sectional content analysis of publicly available documents detailing school food provision (i.e. menus and price lists) was done.

settingPrimary and secondary schools in Wales, UK.

participantsIn total, 82 canteen menus were sourced online. This comprised local authority catering for primary (

resultsIntercoder reliability testing found high agreeability between coders, demonstrating that the tool and data interpretation are reproducible and trustworthy. The FSM allowance is not wholly sufficient for all secondary school pupils to purchase a healthy meal from the school canteen. Moreover, the tool identified that oily fish and wholegrain provision were lacking across many menus.

conclusionsA valuable tool was created, useful for researchers and other health professionals (i.e. dietitians) who are required to analyse the healthiness of school food provision in line with the latest nutritional requirements. This study provides insight into the current school food and drink landscape pan-Wales.

Indexed as

Diet, HealthyFood ServicesSchoolsAdolescentChildCross-Sectional StudiesHumansNutritive ValueReproducibility of ResultsStudentsWalesDiet qualityInstrumentNutrition assessmentSchool food standards

Identifiers

PMID39790039
PMCPMC11822622

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Registered trials

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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.