Increasing the Supply and Demand for Healthful Kids' Meals

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是通过影响美国近100万家餐馆对健康儿童餐的供应和需求，为扭转儿童肥胖趋势做出贡献，并提高我国儿童和后代的健康和福祉。2011年7月，全国餐饮协会（NRA）启动了他们的儿童健康生活（KLW）项目，这是一项有组织的倡议，旨在确定符合2010年美国农业部膳食指南和其他主要儿童健康组织建议的餐厅餐食。该项目将探索机会，1)增加全国餐馆提供的符合KLW条件的选择的数量（供应），2)制定、实施和评估营销策略，以增加订购KLW选择的儿童数量（需求）。虽然许多因素可能与肥胖这个复杂的问题有关，但餐馆环境已被确定为营养倡议的重要场所，因为许多餐馆的饭菜都含有特别高的卡路里、脂肪、饱和脂肪和钠，所有这些都与健康问题和肥胖有关。二十多年来，“健康饮食”一直在与餐馆合作，以提高餐馆饭菜的营养质量。对于这项研究，重点将放在“儿童餐”和儿童肥胖问题上。到目前为止，还没有一个已知的综合项目来向餐馆的父母和儿童推广健康儿童餐，同时也帮助餐馆增加健康儿童餐的供应。在这项拟议的研究中，“健康餐饮”将与参与这一公共卫生问题的专家和有影响力的人合作，包括儿童健康180（总部位于塔夫茨大学）、国家餐馆协会，以及开发超级船员(R)角色的超级儿童营养公司的健康专家。第一阶段将评估以健康儿童餐需求为中心的以餐厅为基础的营养干预的可行性和有效性。这个项目将涉及四个营销策略的实施：1)角色玩具赠品；2)价格干预；3)餐垫和儿童菜单等宣传材料；4)服务员推荐。六家餐厅将在为期八周的干预期内实施这些策略。这些营销策略将通过餐厅总经理、服务员、消费者（即家长和孩子）的反馈以及Kids LiveWell和其他儿童餐在基线和干预期间的每周销售数据进行评估。我们还将与餐厅高管进行访谈，目的是：1)发现餐厅在提供健康儿童选择方面存在的障碍；2)获得见解，指导我们制定策略，增加餐厅对健康儿童选择的供应和需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this project is to contribute to the reversal of childhood obesity trends and to enhance the health and well-being of our nation's children and future generations by impacting the supply and demand for healthful kids' meals in the nearly one million restaurants in America. In July 2011, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) launched their Kids LiveWell (KLW) program, a structured initiative designed to identify restaurant meals that meet the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines and other recommendations made by leading health organizations for children. This project will explore opportunities to 1) increase the number of KLW-qualifying choices available at restaurants nationwide (supply) and 2) develop, implement and evaluate marketing strategies to increase the number of children ordering the KLW choices (demand). Although many factors may be related to the complex issue of obesity, the restaurant environment has been identified as an important venue for nutrition initiatives, as many restaurant meals are particularly high in calories, fat, saturated ft and sodium, all of which are associated with health problems and obesity. HEALTHY DINING has been working with restaurants for over two decades to improve the nutritional quality of restaurant meals. For this study, the focus will be on "kids' meals" and the childhood obesity issue. To date, no known comprehensive program exists to promote healthy kids' meals to parents and children in restaurants while also assisting restaurants to increase the availability o healthy kids' meal offerings. For the proposed study, HEALTHY DINING will collaborate with experts and influencers involved in this public health issue, including ChildObesity180 (based at Tufts University), the National Restaurant Association, and health professionals at SuperKids Nutrition Inc. who developed the Super Crew(R) characters. Phase I will evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a restaurant-based nutrition intervention centering on demand for healthy kids' meals. This project will involve the implementation of four marketing strategies: 1) character toy giveaways, 2) pricing interventions, 3) promotional materials such as placemats and kids' menus, and 4) wait staff recommendations. Six restaurant locations will implement these strategies during an eight week intervention period. These marketing strategies will be evaluated via feedback from restaurant general managers, wait staff, consumers (i.e., parents and children) and weekly sales data of Kids LiveWell and other kids' meals at baseline and during the intervention period. We will also conduct interviews with restaurant executives with the goals of 1) uncovering restaurants' barriers to providing healthy kids' choices and 2) gaining insight that will guide us in developing strategies to increase the availability of and demand for healthier kids' choices in restaurants.