The ELIKUME project aims to help families ensure that their children between 18 and 36 months have sufficient nutrition to enjoy a healthy life. To this end, the second phase of the research has started healthy menus in kindergartens.
The ELIKUME project has started the second intervention phase this academic year 2024-2025, with the aim of continuing to understand the dietary habits and nutritional status of the population. boys and girls attending the municipal kindergartens of Pamplona/Iruñaand who already have healthy and sustainable menus. During the 2023-2024 academic year, approximately 80 families participated in the project and now the goal is to reach 160 families to obtain conclusive and definitive results.
The project focuses on families of boys and girls between 18 and 36 months from municipal kindergartens from Pamplona. People interested in participating can register via the website web of the project, where you can also find more information about it.
This is an initiative funded by the Ministry of Health of the Government of Navarra, through the call “Research Projects in Health Sciences 2022”, and which works on the hypothesis that the training and awareness offered to families will contribute to improving lifestyle, especially treatment compliance. towards a healthy diet and thus reduce the number of overweight and obesity in children and to improve the health of society.
Currently there is one first preliminary analysis of the data obtained until now. Furthermore, an initial pilot intervention was carried out in 2019 with more than 80 families with boys and girls between the ages of 2 and 3, who are currently in the follow-up phase at 6-7 years.
With this data we try to detect whether different lifestyle habits already present in preschool age correlate with the compliance with the Mediterranean diet and the obesity rate from school age onwards. The results obtained are expected to be presented at the Congress of the Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPAP) and will serve to guide and focus the current ELIKUME intervention.
The research team consists of professionals from the Navarra Association of Pediatrics, the autonomous body «Schools Municipal Children of Pamplona”, and the Public University of Navarra (Faculty of Health Sciences), in collaboration with the Health Research Institute of Navarra (IdiSNA) and the biomedical research Navarrabiomed.
The project is led by Edurne Ciriza, pediatrician at the Ansoáin / Antsoain Health Center, in collaboration with nutritionists Izaskun Berasategi (nutritionist at the municipal kindergartens of Pamplona), Isabel Juániz (nutritionist and project researcher) and María Medrano (physical educator and researcher and professor at the Public University of Navarra).
Resources and assistance for families in schools
The project consists of an intervention program involving families of boys and girls between the ages of 18 and 36 months. schools municipal children of Pamplona. Families randomly assigned to the intervention group will have the opportunity to participate in an online training designed exclusively for the project on healthy lifestyle habits and active lifestyle and which will include healthy eating topics (buy healthy and sustainable food at school and at homecooking workshops), physical activity, as well as various resources (videos, recipes, blog posts solving common doubts) for working at home.
This training, voluntary and free of charge, is possible have a positive impact on children’s health from childhood and throughout his life. All families should conduct an initial and final evaluation through online questionnaires to test the hypothesis of the effect of online training on lifestyles.
Research bases of the ELIKUME project
The initiative arises from the HEMENGOAK project, developed by the Pamplona City Council, which realized this project implementing healthy menus in kindergartens in Pamplonamade from sustainable, organic, fresh, seasonal quality products purchased from local producers.
Similarly, the World Health Organization declares a priority to promote access to healthier diets and the promotion of a more active and less sedentary lifestyle, both in the family and at school, from an early age. For this reason, training families who attend these schools can help improve diet and lifestyle beyond schools, contribute to improve the health of the child population worldwide.
This research will support other similar initiatives to adapt school menus to healthy and sustainable diets and promote joint actions from the food, education and healthcare sectors to promoting a healthy lifestyle in our society.
If it is shown that the implementation of these menus and the implementation of nutritional educational actions have the ability to improve the attitudes of families regarding children’s nutrition, their adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and to reduce the risk of overweight and obesity , the research could serve as a basis for designing acomprehensive approach to promoting healthy habits, and thus contributes to improving the health of the child population and their families.
The research promoted by the ELIKUME project could serve as a basis for designing a comprehensive approach that helps promote healthy habits and thus contribute to improve the health of children and their families.