Implementing a nutrition education intervention in Eastern Norwegian Kindergartens: barriers and facilitators

TL;DR

This study explores what helps or hinders nutrition education in kindergartens in Norway, based on staff experiences.

Contribution

Identifies specific barriers and facilitators for implementing nutrition education in kindergartens using qualitative insights from staff.

Findings

Facilitators include good planning, tailoring to staff needs, and prioritizing food/meals.

Barriers include poor planning, one-time presentations, and lack of staff engagement.

Recommendations include participatory approaches and revisiting topics regularly.

Abstract

Implementations to improve healthy eating in kindergartens may play a pivotal role in shaping children’s dietary behaviors. There is limited research on the implementation and key implementation determinants (barriers and facilitators) of interventions in kindergarten settings. The aim of this study was to explore kindergarten staff members’ experiences with the implementation of a nutrition education intervention to identify implementation barriers and facilitators.

We interviewed 12 employees from five different kindergartens in an Eastern Norwegian municipality between 2019 until 2020. The individual interviews were guided by the consolidated framework for implementation research. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed inductively, inspired by Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis.

Implementation facilitators were satisfactory planning and presentation execution, including tailoring to kindergarten and staff needs, food and meals being a kindergarten/staff priority, and confidence-building of staff. Barriers included unsatisfactory planning and presentation execution, the presentation as a one-time event, non-tailoring to kindergarten and staff needs, and kindergartens/staff not prioritizing food and meals.

When developing and implementing similar kindergarten interventions, the following should be considered: a participatory approach, active engagement of staff, the physical learning environment, and the frequency of opportunities to revisit topics.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40795-024-00908-z.

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