Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Objective
To examine the cost and cost-effectiveness of implementing Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX), a 5-week middle school-based obesity-prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, multimedia, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education.Methods
Five intervention and 5 control middle schools (mean enrollment, 1520 students) from the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in a randomized controlled trial of SNaX. Acquisition costs for materials and time and wage data for employees involved in implementing the program were used to estimate fixed and variable costs. Cost-effectiveness was determined using the ratio of variable costs to program efficacy outcomes.Results
The costs of implementing the program over 5 weeks were $5433.26 per school in fixed costs and $2.11 per student in variable costs, equaling a total cost of $8637.17 per school, or $0.23 per student per day. This investment yielded significant increases in the proportion of students served fruit and lunch and a significant decrease in the proportion of students buying snacks. The cost-effectiveness of the program, per student over 5 weeks, was $1.20 per additional fruit served during meals, $8.43 per additional full-priced lunch served, $2.11 per additional reduced-price/free lunch served, and $1.69 per reduction in snacks sold.Conclusions
SNaX demonstrated the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a middle school-based obesity-prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, multimedia, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education. Its cost is modest and unlikely to be a significant barrier to adoption for many schools considering its implementation.
SUBMITTER: Ladapo JA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4808504 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

Ladapo Joseph A JA Bogart Laura M LM Klein David J DJ Cowgill Burton O BO Uyeda Kimberly K Binkle David G DG Stevens Elizabeth R ER Schuster Mark A MA
Academic pediatrics 20150926 3
<h4>Objective</h4>To examine the cost and cost-effectiveness of implementing Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX), a 5-week middle school-based obesity-prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, multimedia, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education.<h4>Methods</h4>Five intervention and 5 control middle schools (mean enrollment, 1520 students) from the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in a randomized controlled tria ...[more]