Caminada, Susanna , Rahmati, Masoud , Rizzo, Cecilia Ricciardi , Boyer, Laurent , Fond, Guillaume , Pizzol, Damiano , Yon, Dong Keon , Fard, Hadis Mehrabi , Gomez, Guillermo , Mortara, Simone , Arosio, Marta , Weir, Corina , Nova, Chiara , Uberti, Filippo , LOPEZ GIL, JOSE FRANCISCO, Gawronska, Julia , Smith, Lee
No
Nutr Rev
Review
Científica
29/12/2025
001649651500001
Context Sustainable and regulated educational-setting food interventions may support regular and appropriate nutritional intake, resulting in positive health outcomes.Objective The aim of this review was to assess the strength of associations between educational-setting food interventions and health outcomes among students.Data Sources The PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched systematically for studies that investigated the association on educational-setting feeding intervention and health outcomes. Students receiving vs those not receiving educational-setting feeding interventions were eligible.Data Extraction We extracted data on study characteristics, participants, feeding interventions, and health outcomes.Data Analysis Outcomes were aggregated and reported as mean difference (MD) or event rate (ER), along with 95% CIs, using a 1-stage approach and a random-effects model. We included 91 studies with a total of 47 241 students, of whom 25 220 received an educational-setting feeding intervention. Meta-analysis results indicated a significant association between educational-setting feeding intervention and higher hemoglobin (MD = 0.80; 95% CI, 0.73-0.88), body iron (MD = 1.60; 95% CI, 0.15-3.05), vitamin D (MD = 8.63; 95% CI, 6.46-10.81), zinc (MD = 1.19; 95% CI, 0.17-2.20), and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) (MD = -0.79; 95% CI, -1.42 to -0.15). Positive significant associations were also found for anthropometric parameters, including height, weight for age, height for age, and body mass index. No significant association with cognition was detected (MD = 1.27; 95% CI, -26 to 3.81).Conclusions This work enhances the crucial role of educational-setting feeding interventions, highlighting their association with multiple health outcomes, and draws attention to the importance of integrated approaches to achieve better and more sustainable results.Systematic Review Registration PROSPERO registration No. CRD420251027958
school feeding; health outcomes; meta-analysis