Figure 3.
Skin carotenoid status after 7-week intervention with 3-to-5-year-olds (n = 113). The intervention group received 7 hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics food-based learning activities, over 4 months to expose children to 9 target vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, radish, sweet potato, cucumber, tomato, carrot, and pea pod). Time of assessment: T1, baseline; T2, midpoint; T3, posttest. Scale = 0−850 for Veggie Meter (Longevity Link Corporation, Salt Lake City, UT) score. In between T2 and T3, children were absent from school for 3 weeks for winter break; however, the duration between data collection points was approximately equal. The values for mean and SE were reported. Repeated measures ANOVA reported significant difference from baseline (F1,77 = 3.98; P = 0.02; r = 0.10). Covariates appearing in the model are evaluated at the following values: sex, age = 3.73, BMI z-score = 0.74. *Indicates SCS levels that were significantly higher in the intervention group at posttest than the comparison group (t = 2.54; degrees of freedom = 85; P = 0.01).