Effect of national recommendation on sweet selling as an intervention for a healthier school
environment
Sammanfattning
Aims: In 2007, the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) and the National Institute for
Health and Welfare (THL) gave a national recommendation that Finnish upper comprehensive
schools should not sell sweet products. The aim was to find out how the national recommendation
changed the schools’ selling of sweet products. Methods: This longitudinal survey was conducted in
Finnish upper comprehensive school classes 7-9 (13-15-year-old pupils) in 2007 and 2010. All the
schools (N=970) were invited to answer the questionnaire and 237 schools answered in both years
(response rate 24%). The questionnaires contained questions concerning the selling of sweet and
healthy products and school policy on sweet selling guidelines. Of the nine items in the
questionnaire, three weighted sum scores were formed for oral health promotion: Exposure, enabling
and policy (higher score indicating better actions). These sum scores were also trichotomized.
Statistical significances of the changes were analyzed using nonparametric Wilcoxon’s test,
McNemar’s test, and McNemar-Bowker’s test. Results: Schools had decreased exposure of pupils to
sweet products (p<0.001), more often provided oral health protecting items (p=0.047) and had
improved their oral health-promoting policy (p<0.001). The selling of some sweet products, candies
and soft drinks had decreased (p<0.001) whereas the selling of other sweet products had not changed
(p=0.665). Schools tended to improve their exposure and policy status (p<0.001). Conclusion: It is
possible to improve school environments by means of a national recommendation. Other actions are
needed both inside and outside schools in order to decrease the total consumption of sweet products
among adolescents.