Table 1.
Characteristics associated with receiving a free school meal among children in lockdown among who are eligible for a free school meal in April 2020.
| Variable | Did the child access their free school meal? |
Logistic regressionb |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No (n = 341, 49%) |
Yes (n = 294, 51%) |
Total (n = 635) |
|||||
| N | (%) | n | (%) | n | OR | 95% CI | |
| School phase | |||||||
| Infants (aged 4–7) | 284 | (77.26) | 75 | (22.74) | 359 | Ref | |
| Juniors (aged 8–11) | 30 | (23.69) | 93 | (76.31) | 123 | 11.81∗∗∗ | [5.54, 25.19] |
| Secondary (aged 12–18) | 27 | (16.94) | 126 | (83.06) | 153 | 16.45∗∗∗ | [7.59, 35.66] |
| Guardian's ethnicity | |||||||
| White | 315 | (49.75) | 252 | (50.25) | 567 | Ref | |
| BAME | 63 | (43.49) | 80 | (56.51) | 143 | 0.65 | [0.09, 4.82] |
| Equivalised household incomea | |||||||
| Low | 123 | (35.02) | 192 | (64.98) | 315 | 4.81∗∗∗ | [2.10, 11.03] |
| Middle | 119 | (61.84) | 79 | (38.16) | 198 | 2.46 | [1.00, 6.10] |
| High | 99 | (81.94) | 23 | (18.06) | 122 | Ref | |
| Missing | 37 | (46.54) | 38 | (53.46) | 75 | 1.9 | [0.72, 5.02] |
| Country | |||||||
| England | 321 | (46.73) | 283 | (53.27) | 604 | Ref | |
| Wales | 13 | (75.75) | 17 | (24.25) | 30 | 0.11∗∗ | [0.03, 0.43] |
| Scotland | 36 | (65.59) | 19 | (34.41) | 55 | 0.66 | [0.21, 2.05] |
| Northern Ireland | 8 | (53.02) | 13 | (46.98) | 21 | 0.23 | [0.01, 4.81] |
| Child at school in lockdown | |||||||
| Yes | 16 | (21.49) | 32 | (78.51) | 48 | 5.87∗∗ | [1.70, 20.25] |
| No | 362 | (51.23) | 300 | (48.77) | 662 | Ref | |
∗P < 0.05; ∗∗P < 0.01; ∗∗∗P < 0.05. Ref = reference group; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval.
BAME = black and minority ethnic.
a
Wave 9 household income (2017–18) equivalised using the OECD scale and categorised into quantiles.
b
Multivariable logistic regression with school phase, guardian's ethnicity, household income, country and school attendance included in the model.