School Nutrition Programs in Dubai: A Landscape Analysis

Reem AlGurg^1*Nour Abu Mahfouz²Farah Otaki^3*Agnes Paulus⁴Amar Hassan Khamis⁵Mohamad Alameddine⁶

• ¹Strategy and Institutional Excellence, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• ²College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health, Dubai, United Arab Emirates., Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• ³Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences (FHML), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands., Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
• ⁴School of Health Professions Education (SHE), Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences (FHML), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands., Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
• ⁵Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health, Dubai, United Arab Emirates., Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• ⁶Research Institute of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Department of Health Care Management, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates., University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Little is known about the execution of School Nutrition Programs (SNPs) within schools across the public and private sectors in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This highlights the importance of capturing an inside perspective about the specificities of the SNPs in order to ensure their effective, efficient, and equitable implementation across schools, irrespective of whether they are public or private.The overall purpose of this study was to develop insight into SNPs in Dubai, and to investigate the difference in characteristics of those SNPs, between the public and private sectors.This study relied on a quantitative tailor-made survey. The data were analyzed using SPSS; descriptive analysis consisted of computing the proportions for all the variables. In terms of inferential analysis, chi-square test of independence was selected to determine whether there are associations between the categorical variables (i.e., the various characteristics of the SNPs, and whether the corresponding schools are public or private).Out of 75 school representatives who were invited to participate in the current study, 60 responded, of whom 48 school representatives indicated that their respective schools had SNPs. These 48 SNPs had varying implementation scopes and program compositions (i.e., combination of initiatives) of Parents' Involvement, Lunch Box, Educational Curriculum, Hydration, Awareness Activities, School Canteen, and/ or Food Safety and Hygiene. The stakeholders involved in developing and maintaining the respective SNPs and the intended outcomes of those programs also differed across the schools.This study highlights the importance of the proposed reformation around SNPs in Dubai to take into account the governance structure on the local and national levels, quality assurance measures, stakeholder engagement, and programs' intended outcomes and compositions. It proposes the enactment and maintenance of holistic, school-level healthy living programs that include nutrition as part of a more comprehensive approach to fostering the students' individual and collective wellbeing.