The development, implementation and evaluation of an integrated educational program for 12-14 year old students to promote healthy eating habits.

In the Netherlands, the existing activities to promote healthy eating habits (i.e. habits in accordance with the Dietary Guidelines) among minors only partly satisfy the conditions for effective interventions that have been suggested in the international literature. Moreover, the activities are not tuned to each other. The purpose of this project is to develop an integrated program for 12-14 year old students, using the 'intervention mapping' method. Subsequently, the feasibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this program will be assessed in a field experiment. Fifty schools (about 2230 students) will be randomly assigned to either the experimental (new program) or control condition (existing activities). At the start and end of the school year in which the program will be executed, written questionnaires will be completed by the students and a subsample of parents. Effect indicators include changes in nutrition behavior and behavioral determinants. Process data will be collected throughout the implementation period.