Frontiers in public health
Integrating macro- and meso-level perspectives on school nutrition programs in Dubai: a joint display mixed methods integration study
By AlGurg R, Otaki F, Albloushi K and 5 others.
Abstract
Background
School Nutrition Programs (SNPs) are increasingly recognized as essential public health interventions that influence children's health, educational attainment, wellbeing, and future non-communicable disease risk. While previous studies in Dubai explored stakeholders' macro-level perceptions regarding the upscaling of SNPs and quantitatively characterized SNPs implementation across schools, the integrated understanding of how policy-level aspirations align with school-level realities remains limited. Generating such an integrated understanding is essential for informing implementation strategies that are effective, efficient, equitable, and contextually responsive.
Objective
This study aimed to integrate the primary inferences generated from two complementary studies investigating SNPs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.