Junk food consumption in Jewish middle schools

Background: Orthodox Jews typically use treat foods for rewards in school and at home. Community-specific data is useful to demonstrate need for interventions and guide their design. Methods: Surveys were administered to all 7th-8th graders at all Jewish middle schools (3 Orthodox, 1 Conservative, 1 non-denominational) in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, OH). To protect school identification, students were grouped by family religious identity: Non-Orthodox (NO), Modern Orthodox (MO) and Centrist/Ultra-Orthodox (CUO). Variables: consumption of junk food (chips/sweets/desserts) 2+daily; importance of eating less junk food to self, friends (1-5 scale); access(home, school: 1-5 scales); encouragement to eat less junk food (parents, teachers);sex. Modified Poisson and ordinary regression models were used. Results: 241 surveys(82% of total enrolled; 86 NO, 94 MO, 61 CUO) were complete. Only CUO(RR=3.0, p=.0085) and home junk food(RR=2.6, p=.0026) were associated with high junk food consumption. Nevertheless, many factors were associated with importance of eating less junk food: Parent(.38, p=.0066) and teacher(.52, p=.0027) encouragement, female(.56, p<.0001) and home junk food(-.33, p=.0217), and borderline significance for importance to friends(.40, p=.0538). Sex and Religious identification were not associated with home junk food. School junk food was more common in the Orthodox, MO(.54, p=.0006) and CUO(.35, p=.0444). Conclusions: Orthodox schools were more likely to have junk food regularly available. However, high junk food consumption was not driven by school availability, attitude or influences, but by regular availability at home and family religious identity. Interventions should target the home more than the school.