Impacts of the Primary School Free Breakfast Initiative on socio-economic inequalities in breakfast consumption among 9-11-year-old schoolchildren in Wales

Abstract

Objectives Universal interventions may widen or narrow inequalities if disproportionately effective among higher or lower socio-economic groups. The present paper examines impacts of the Primary School Free Breakfast Initiative in Wales on inequalities in children's dietary behaviours and cognitive functioning. Design Cluster-randomised controlled trial. Responses were linked to free school meal (FSM) entitlement via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank. Impacts on inequalities were evaluated using weighted school-level regression models with interaction terms for intervention × whole-school percentage FSM entitlement and intervention × aggregated individual FSM entitlement. Individual-level regression models included interaction terms for intervention × individual FSM entitlement. Setting Fifty-five intervention and fifty-six wait-list control primary schools. Subjects Approximately 4500 children completed measures of dietary behaviours and cognitive tests at baseline and 12-month follow-up. Results School-level models indicated that children in intervention schools ate a greater number of healthy items for breakfast than children in control schools (b = 0·25; 95 % CI 0·07, 0·44), with larger increases observed in more deprived schools (interaction term b = 1·76; 95 % CI 0·36, 3·16). An interaction between intervention and household-level deprivation was not significant. Despite no main effects on breakfast skipping, a significant interaction was observed, indicating declines in breakfast skipping in more deprived schools (interaction term b =-0·07; 95 % CI-0·15,-0·00) and households (OR = 0·67; 95 % CI 0·46, 0·98). No significant influence on inequality was observed for the remaining outcomes. Conclusions Universal breakfast provision may reduce socio-economic inequalities in consumption of healthy breakfast items and breakfast skipping. There was no evidence of intervention-generated inequalities in any outcomes. Copyright © The Authors 2013Â The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use..