A national evaluation of school breakfast clubs: Evidence from a cluster randomised controlled trial and observational analysis

Shemilt, I., Harvey, I., Shepstone, L., Swift, L., Reading, R., Mugford, M., Belderson, P., Norris, N., Thoburn, J. and Robinson, J. (2004) A national evaluation of school breakfast clubs: Evidence from a cluster randomised controlled trial and observational analysis. Child: Care, Health and Development, 30 (5). pp. 413-427. ISSN 0305-1862

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Abstract

Study objective: To measure the health, educational and social impacts of breakfast club provision in schools serving deprived areas across England. Design: A cluster randomized controlled trial and an observational analysis. Setting: England, the UK. Intervention: funding to establish a school-based breakfast club vs. control (no funding). Main results: Intention to treat analysis showed improved concentration (Trail Making Test Part A) amongst the intervention group at 3months. Fewer pupils within the intervention group reported having skipped classes within the last month and fewer pupils within the intervention group reported having skipped 1 or more days of school within the last month at 1 year. Observational analysis at 1 year showed a higher proportion of primary-aged breakfast club attendees reported eating fruit for breakfast in comparison to non-attendees. A higher proportion of breakfast club attendees had borderline or abnormal conduct and total difficulties scores (primary-aged pupils) and prosocial score (secondary-aged pupils). Conclusions: Analyses revealed a mixed picture of benefit and apparent disbenefit. This study illustrated the challenges of evaluating a complex intervention in which the evaluators had less control than is usual in randomized trials over recruitment, eligibility checking and implementation. If the impact of new policy initiatives is to be assessed using the most robust forms of evaluation, social policy needs to be organized so that evaluations can be constructed as experiments. This is likely to prove most difficult where the perceived value of implementing an intervention rapidly is high.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Social Work Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Economics Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Child Protection & Family Support Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Research on Children and Families
Depositing User:	Vishal Gautam
Date Deposited:	01 Sep 2004
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2024 10:06
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/16571
DOI:	10.1111/j.1365-2214.2004.00453.x

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