2019 SCIENCELINE  
Journal of Life Science and Biomedicine  
J Life Sci Biomed, 9 (1): 05-09, 2019  
ISSN 2251-9939  
Impact of school meals’ type and time on  
children's food consumption, physical and  
behavioral activities  
Mahshad Yousefi and Zahrah Yousefi  
1Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran  
2MSc, Department of English Literature, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran  
Corresponding author’s Email: mahshadyousefi99@gmail.com  
ABSTRACT  
Original Article  
Today, proper nutrition is one of the useful tools for the healthiness and sustainability of  
people's diet and especially student performance and behavior in school. Existing nutrient  
standards for school meals are always important when packed foods or lunches brought from  
home. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of school meals type and time  
on behavioral response, physical activity and the body mass index (BMI) in elementary  
students of Razan city, Iran. Elementary school principals (N = 16) and total of 234 students  
selected from 5 schools completed a survey on the school food and physical and behavioral  
activitıes environment. Students were weighed and measured for their body mass index (BMI)  
that calculated using a standard protocol and also send a BMI report card to their parents.  
Results of this study showed that effect of type of time regulation in school nutritional  
program could significantly improve behavioral response, and especially physical activity and  
BMI and it can be considered as an applicable strategy to the implementation of such  
programs on the health status of students.  
PII: S225199391900002-9  
Rec. 22 Jul.  
2018  
Acc. 10 Dec. 2018  
Pub. 25 Jan. 2019  
Keywords  
Elementary students,  
Body mass index,  
Nutritional behavior,  
Physical activity  
INTRODUCTION  
To date, physical activity and nutritional intake are always one of the important factors of overweight and  
obesity, especially in students. Currently, wrong nutritional regimes, trends and the related disorders in  
advanced countries are as epidemiology [1, 2]. Recently studies have focused on the health status of students on  
behavioral and cognitive subjects linked to psychological - physical pathologies and mainly from view point of  
school nutritional program [2]. Results of early conducted study in Iran showed that almost eighteen  
percentages of teenagers were suffered from overweight and obesity [3] and from cardiovascular risks like high  
bad cholesterol or LDL-C (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) and those aged >6-12 years had high triglycerides  
and low good cholesterol (high DL-C) [4].  
Cox et al. [5] referred to some problems as emotional failures, alcoholism, smoking, illegal drugs and eating  
disorders and reported that it seems that relationship between behaviors and nutrition are more complex than  
smoking and drinking alcohol, so that quantitative indices can used easily to assess Psychoactive drugs but  
nutritional behaviors are more complex and multidimensional in terms of evaluation [3]. Some indices as rate of  
the food intake and calorie, feelings of satiety, anorexia and overweight are various factors that evaluate some  
aspects of nutritional behaviors. One of the most acceptable and common indices in most of the researches is  
body mass index. This index is calculated via weight and height of the person and it is a rather reliable index of  
body fat in most of the people. It is worth to mention that BMI doesn’t measure body fat directly, but the  
researches showed that BMI has linear correlation with direct evaluation of body fat such as weighting under  
water and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry [6]. BMI in most of the researches is related to a wide range of  
health issue (increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetic, cancer and arthritis) [7]. So BMI is considered  
as an important variable in health researches. Hence, one of the important scopes of experiments is the  
examination of the factors related to BMI.  
In some of the studies, cognitive variables (memory, attention range etc.) are investigated as BMI  
predictive [8]. In other studies, some indices as food external index, emotional factors and abstain eating are  
supported as BMI predictive [9, 10]. Some of the researches also referred to some factors as stress, anxiety and  
To cite this paper: Yousefi M and Yousefi Z. 2019. Impact of school meals’ type and time on children's food consumption, physical and behavioral activities. J. Life  
Sci. Biomed. 9(1): 05-09; www.jlsb.science-line.com  
depression as probable predictor of BMI and moderator effects of some variables such as gender and physical  
activity [8]. In some of the researches, some variables such as knowledge, attitude and performance of guidance  
and high school students about healthy nutrition were investigated [11] so that they reported that a small  
percentage of teenagers have good nutritional performance and in most of the cases their attitude and  
performance is not according to their nutritional knowledge. Nutritional knowledge is not the only effective  
factor on nutritional behaviors [12, 13] and there are other variables that were more effective in this regard.  
Subject of the current study was investigating effect of programming and intervention on nutritional time  
and type toward a better understanding behavior of students, their physical activity and BMI factors.  
MATERIAL AND METHODS  
The presented study was conducted in Iranian elementary school principals (N=16) of Hamedan, Razan city, by  
participating 9, 10 and 11 years students (Nꢀ=ꢀ234) in a survey. A total number of twenty hundred thirty four  
male students (n=81, n=89 and n=64 for classes III, IV and V, respectively) were randomly selected from 5  
schools. The students completed a simple survey on the school food and physical and behavioral activitıes  
environment in 2016–12.  
Questionnaire and method of collecting data were used according to work of Azadbakht et al. [11].  
Questionnaire was contained 21 items including, nutritional knowledge or behavior, attitude toward nutrition  
and their age and class. In order to study the body mass index of participants, their weight and height measured  
using a standard protocol. In order to answer the research question, the mean scores of respondent was  
presented as percentages of students as accepted or rejected program and its types and times.  
Ethical approval  
The review board and ethics committee of Educational Administration of Razan, Iran approved the study  
protocol and informed consents were taken from all the participants.  
Statistical Analysis  
For analyze the data, in descriptive statistics section, the indexes of mean and standard deviation was  
calculated and in inferential section, and the one sample T test was used. All collected data were analyzed by  
V.16, SPSSS statistical software (Predictive Analytics Software, PASW).  
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION  
Descriptive statistics of the research variables were shown in Tables 1 and 2. To assess hypothesis of the  
current study, correlation between predictive matrices and criterion variables such as BMI was calculated.  
Percentage of Normal BMI for all students was 76.44 and as a consequence, nutritional behavior and attitude  
had the highest correlation with BMI variable while age variable showed the lowest correlation with BMI (Table  
2).  
School nutrition program was significantly (P<0.01) accepted by all participants. That is showed a tendency  
and appetite in elementary students; so that it was desirable for students if nutrition implemented between  
lesson classes and in recess time or performed within second and third classes. Physical activity after school  
nutrition satisfied class V's students while those participated from classes III and IV were not acquiescent with  
this plan. Class III's students loved school nutrition twice in day while satisfactory decreased by class IV and V's  
students, significantly (P<0.01). School nutrition in bell sports was not accepted by all of volunteers (P<0.01).  
The purpose of the presented study was investigating effect of programming and intervention on  
nutritional time and type in order to better understanding behavior and acceptability of program in elementary  
students, their physical activity and BMI factors.  
According to the results of previous researches, some factors such as nutritional behavior, nutritional  
knowledge, attitude toward nutrition, physical exercise and demographic variables of age and gender were  
investigated as predictive variables of body mass index. In the current results, examined factors predicted  
normal BMI significantly which these results were supported hypotheses of the research.  
Study of the results obtained from Sadrzadeh Yeganeh et al. [14] showed relationship of the obesity with  
some the nutritional behaviors among school girls. In another study [11], it was shown that despite having good  
nutritional knowledge, low values of nutritional behavior in high school students were detected. Likewise,  
results of the presented study revealed that predictive variable of nutritional behavior are referred as the most  
important BMI predictive variable. The various studies showed that nutritional behavior, nutritional  
knowledge, attitude toward nutrition and physical exercise are good variables to investigate the nutritional  
trend of elementary students and their weights [12, 15]. The results observed in the current study is similar to  
the findings of the same researches carried out in this field [16-18].  
As presented in results section, a programmed nutritional time and type has good influence on promotion  
of behavior of elementary students and their physical activity and therefore culture of using the modern  
To cite this paper: Yousefi M and Yousefi Z. 2019. Impact of school meals’ type and time on children's food consumption, physical and behavioral activities. J. Life  
Sci. Biomed. 9(1): 05-09; www.jlsb.science-line.com  
educational tools and providing proper opportunities for enriching the student’s scientific threshold via a  
proper and managed nutrition.  
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of correlated variables of school meals  
Nutritional Variables  
M
SD  
Min  
Max  
Age  
10.5  
8.24  
9.15  
6.5  
2.15  
1.05  
1.16  
1.60  
9
5.5  
6
11  
9
11  
8
Knowledge  
Attitude  
Behavior  
4
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of categorical variables  
Body Mass Index  
Third  
Grade  
81  
Fourth  
Grade  
89  
Fifth  
Grade  
64  
Total  
Normal  
Abnormal  
Variables  
Frequency  
Percentage  
234  
100  
172  
76.44  
55  
24.45  
97  
95  
98  
Table 3. Percentage and standard deviation of studied items and comparison between scores by single group T  
statistical test for students in three classes  
Range of effectiveness  
N
Percentage  
SD  
MD T value  
DF Significance  
Third Grade  
Acceptability of school meal program  
Meals between lesson classes and in recess time  
Meals within first and second classes  
Meals within second and third classes  
I love physical activity after school meal  
I love school meals twice in day  
81  
81  
81  
81  
81  
81  
81  
91.3  
4.58 2.68  
5.53 4.95  
1.56 4.23  
2.46 3.56  
1.63 2.37  
2.52 2.84  
1.53 2.68  
6.64  
9.76  
4.25  
5.51  
3.26  
8.77  
7.06  
80  
80  
80  
80  
80  
80  
80  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.08  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.05  
P > 0.05  
P > 0.05  
93.82  
71.43  
60.49  
37.03  
67.90  
25.92  
I love school meals be in bell sports  
Fourth Grade  
Acceptability of school meal program  
Meals between lesson classes and in recess time  
Meals within second and third classes  
I love physical activity after school meal  
I love school meals twice in day  
89  
89  
89  
89  
89  
89  
94.38  
80.89  
73.03  
37.03  
29.21  
42.69  
5.50 4.68  
4.53 3.95  
4.56 3.56  
3.63 2.37  
2.52 2.84  
3.53 3.68  
6.64  
9.76  
5.51  
3.26  
8.77  
7.06  
88  
88  
88  
88  
88  
88  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
I love school meals be in bell sports  
Fifth Grade  
Acceptability of school meal program  
Meals between lesson classes and in recess time  
Meals within second and third classes  
I love physical activity after school meal  
I love school meals twice in day  
I love school meals be in bell sports  
Principals  
64  
64  
64  
64  
64  
64  
95.31  
60.93  
54.68  
78.12  
23.43  
10.93  
5.56 4.68  
4.53 3.95  
3.56 2.56  
4.63 2.37  
2.52 2.84  
1.25 1.68  
6.64  
9.76  
5.51  
3.26  
8.77  
7.06  
63  
63  
63  
63  
63  
63  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P = 0.10  
P < 0.01  
Acceptability of school meal program  
Meals between lesson classes and in recess time  
Meals within second and third classes  
I love physical activity after school meal  
I love school meals twice in day  
I love school meals be in bell sports  
16  
16  
16  
16  
16  
16  
95.31  
60.93  
54.68  
78.12  
23.43  
10.93  
5.56 4.68  
4.53 3.95  
3.56 2.56  
4.63 2.37  
2.52 2.84  
1.25 1.68  
6.64  
9.76  
5.51  
3.26  
8.77  
7.06  
15  
15  
15  
15  
15  
15  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
P < 0.01  
MD= Mean difference, DF= Degree of freedom, SD= Standard error  
CONCLUSION  
Results showed that non-profit elementary schools had high influence and effectiveness on compensating the  
opportunities of education, reinforcement of scientific capacity and stamina of students, facilitating the  
scientific-investigative relations, providing new educational opportunities for employees, generalizing and  
To cite this paper: Yousefi M and Yousefi Z. 2019. Impact of school meals’ type and time on children's food consumption, physical and behavioral activities. J. Life  
Sci. Biomed. 9(1): 05-09; www.jlsb.science-line.com  
stabilizing a scientific-healthy educational system. Previous findings of studies made in this area are also in  
conformity with the results of the present survey.  
In future researches, obstacles of using modern education-nutritional tools and also cognitive and  
emotional consequences of using remote education system can be examined. As a consequence, implementation  
of the self-report questionnaire, which was limited to managers and educational employees of elementary  
schools, should be under consideration.  
DECLARATIONS  
Acknowledgements  
The authors are grateful to all school principals participated in this survey and also to managers of  
selected school of Razan city, Iran for his valuable support related to the current study.  
Authors’ contributions  
All authors contributed equally to this work.  
Competing interests  
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.  
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To cite this paper: Yousefi M and Yousefi Z. 2019. Impact of school meals’ type and time on children's food consumption, physical and behavioral activities. J. Life  
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To cite this paper: Yousefi M and Yousefi Z. 2019. Impact of school meals’ type and time on children's food consumption, physical and behavioral activities. J. Life  
Sci. Biomed. 9(1): 05-09; www.jlsb.science-line.com