CLASS is a large, cross-sectional, provincial study that has investigated the relationship between nutrition, physical activity, mental health and school performance of grade 5 students in Nova Scotia across two time this website points (2003 and 2011).

The vast majority of the grade 5 student population in Nova Scotia attends public schools; all public schools were invited to participate in both data collection cycles. In 2003, 282 of 291 schools (96.9%) agreed to participate and 5517 parents provided their consent, resulting in an average response rate of 51.1% per school. The 2011 cycle of data collection provides a comparable sample with 269 of 286 schools (94.1%) and informed consent from 5913 parents. The higher response rate in 2011 (67.7%) may be reflective of the support we received from school jurisdictions and stakeholders

interested in the CLASS research. On each occasion, trained research assistants visited the schools to administer the surveys to students and to complete anthropometric measurements. Standing height was measured to the nearest www.selleckchem.com/products/BKM-120.html 0.1 cm after students had removed their shoes and body weight to the nearest 0.1 kg on calibrated digital scales. The surveys were similar in both cycles (some items were slightly modified or added in 2011) and included the Harvard Youth Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire (YAQ) adapted for Canadian settings (used in both 2003 and 2011) to gather information on usual dietary intake and habits pertaining to

mealtime behaviors (Rockett et al., 1995). The survey for students included mostly validated questions on physical and sedentary activities, mental health, self-efficacy and body image, and measurements of height and weight. Parents also completed a of survey to collect information on socio-demographic factors and the home environment. Principals completed surveys that provided information on school characteristics and implementation of school policies. Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Boards at the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University. Permission for data collection was also granted from participating school boards. Student’s diet quality, nutrient intake, and caloric intake were assessed using the YAQ and Canadian Nutrient File (Health Canada, 2007). Overall diet quality was measured using the Diet Quality Index — International (DQI) score, a composite measure of diet quality ranging from 0 to 100 that includes aspects of diet adequacy, variety, balance and moderation (Kim et al., 2003). Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) were defined as consumption of non-diet soda, fruit drinks and sweetened iced tea drinks, based on the YAQ. Nutrient intakes were compared with the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) (Institute of Medicine, 2011) where intakes of carbohydrate, protein and fat were compared with the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR).