Researchers from Maastricht University compared more than 2,200 children from four project schools and four regular schools over a period of four years. They were shocked by the major differences in the children’s health at these schools and are issuing an urgent appeal to policymakers, school boards and governments: doing nothing is not an option.
Results of the Healthy Primary School of the Future
The long-term GBT project took place in the Parkstad region of South Limburg. This is an area with relatively serious health problems among the population. The researchers found that after four years, the BMI (body mass index) of children at a healthy primary school was much better compared with that of children at the control schools. Every GBT child had a healthier weight, while the weight of children at the control schools continued to increase, sometimes alarmingly so. Waist circumference is an even more important predictor of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease than weight expressed as BMI, because it reflects the amount of abdominal fat. Abdominal fat increases the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. Waist circumference also improved significantly among children at the healthy primary schools, indicating less abdominal fat. In terms of food and drink, the GBT schools saw a spectacular increase in children drinking water at school instead of sugary drinks. It is also notable that the atmosphere in the classroom improved. There was less bullying at a healthy primary school.
Expansion of the project
Especially because of the impressive differences compared with the control schools, the researchers’ most important message to policymakers, the food industry and governments is that action is needed. More than half of the Dutch population is overweight. Obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and lung disease are widespread in the Netherlands. Increasingly, children are also developing chronic diseases as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle, leading to declining academic performance and social inequality. According to the researchers, the GBT project clearly shows that the younger children are when they begin learning a healthy lifestyle, the greater the long-term effect. Children also take the healthy behaviour home with them, thereby bringing about behavioural change among their parents. The most vulnerable families in particular benefit greatly from this. This is one of the reasons why the initiators of this project want to expand the GBT schools in Limburg, including into the Venlo region. To achieve this in the short term, various parties established a foundation on Tuesday 22 September to take charge of expanding the healthy primary schools. The parties involved in the foundation support the Province of Limburg’s ambition to scale up the project to at least 30 schools in Limburg by 2023.
The founders of the foundation who want to expand the number of healthy primary schools.
About the Healthy Primary School of the Future
The aim of the Healthy Primary School of the Future project is to investigate whether children who are offered a structured daily routine at primary school, with sufficient time for education, sport, physical activity, play and attention to healthy nutrition, experience better physical, emotional and intellectual development. This programme, unique to Limburg and the Netherlands, is an initiative of the Province of Limburg, education foundation MOVARE, GGD South Limburg, Maastricht University, Maastricht UMC+, childcare organisations and playgroups, in close collaboration with numerous private and social organisations.
The research is not yet publicly available, as it will first be published in The Lancet.
GGD South Limburg, together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, produced a special magazine about the Healthy Primary School of the Future. The magazine can be downloaded here.