A pilot study of the effect of providing daily free fruit to primary-school children in Auckland, New Zealand

Objective: To determine the uptake of a free fruit provision to low-decile primary school children by quantitatively assessing changes in fruit intake. Design: A randomised controlled trial using a paired, cluster randomisation. Setting: Twenty low-decile primary schools (schools attended by the most deprived children) in Auckland, New Zealand. Subjects: In total 2032 children, aged 7-11 years, provided data on at least one occasion. Intervention: Ten pairs of low-decile primary schools matched by roll size and location were randomly allocated to control (no free fruit) or intervention (free fruit) for a school term. Dietary assessments using the 24 h recall methodology were made at baseline, on the last week of the intervention and 6 weeks post-intervention. Results: Fruit intakes in this cohort were lower than the national average with over 40% reporting no fruit intake at baseline and did not differ between group. After the free fruit period the intervention group increased school fruit intakes by 0.39 pieces/school d from baseline (P <= 0.001) and the proportion of children consuming no fruit reduced to 22%. This increase, however, was not sustained and fruit intakes fell below baseline levels a 6 weeks post-intervention. Control subjects did not significantly alter their fruit intakes throughout the study. Conclusions: Improving exposure and accessibility to fruits at school increases normally eat fruit. The present pilot study demonstrtes some possible negative effects of short-term free fruit interventions, but is informative for developing and evaluating sustained fruit intervention programmes.