Table 1 Summary of strategies and costs for the three trials
Strategies | Description and/or cost components | High intensity intervention [8] Trial registration: ACTRN12613000311752 | Medium intensity intervention [18] Trial registration: ACTRN12614001148662 | Low intensity intervention [19] Trial registration: ACTRN12613000543785 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Percentage of schools for each trial that provided menus for audit at follow-up. | 81% | 96% | 74% | |
1. Policy implementation support | The support officer provided targeted advice to overcome common barriers to policy implementation and to encourage canteen managers to review progress against action plans. | $151,062 | $65,111 | $71,128 |
2. Executive support | School principals were asked to communicate support for policy implementation and maintenance to teachers, parents, students and canteen managers during staff meetings, in newsletters, and assemblies. | Cost included in support staff wages in Policy Implementation | ||
3. Consensus processes | Meetings between support staff and canteen staff were held to discuss and reach consensus regarding the policy, how best to implement it and to develop local canteen action plans to co-ordinate implementation tasks. | Cost included in support staff wages in Policy Implementation | ||
4. Training | Canteen managers, canteen staff and parent representatives were invited to attend a training workshop (five hours) with the aim of providing education and skill development in the policy, nutrition and food label reading, canteen stock and financial management, pricing and promotion, and change management. Training combined didactic and interactive components including opportunities for self-assessment, role play and facilitator provided feedback. Training was facilitated by support staff. | $6376 | $833 | N/A |
5. Tools and resources | Provision of “Canteen Resource Kit” containing various printed and electronic instructional materials, including electronic menu and pricing templates, and a poster-sized checklist that prompted canteen managers to regularly review their canteen practices. Canteen managers also received kitchen equipment to the value of AUD$100. | $4781 | $2959 | N/A |
6. Academic detailing | School canteen visits were conducted one and three months post canteen manager training to enable support officers to observe the operational canteen environment, provide feedback, and assist with problem solving barriers to policy implementation. | Cost included in support staff wages in Policy Implementation | N/A | N/A |
7. Recognition | Schools with a menu assessed as adhering to the policy (i.e. greater than 50% ‘green’ items and no ‘red’ or ‘banned’ items) were acknowledged. | $27 | $0 | N/A |
8. Performance monitoring and feedback | Menu reviews were conducted (unless menus were unchanged) and the results were used to compile written feedback reports to the canteen manager and school principal. Costs; collection of menus, conduct audits and generate feedback reports | $4428 (4/school) | $2024 (2/school) | $4554 (4/school) |
9. Marketing strategies | Quarterly project newsletters communicated key messages, provided information and case studies of successful implementation approaches to common barriers. | $298 | N/A | N/A |
Total cost | $166,971 | $70,926 | $75,682 | |
Total cost / school | $4771 | $2216 | $2102 | |