Gardening based diet therapy for school going students with attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder is also a neurobehavioral disorder and is alarmingly increasing in the society. Recent studies on nutrition and ADHD recommends that elimination of certain foods from the diet reduces symptoms of ADHD. TTie research work entitled,''Garden based diet therapy for school going students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" was conducted during 2017-2019, with the objective to determine the impact of garden-based diet therapy on the ADHD symptomology of school going children with ADHD in a randomized control trial. The present study was carried out with questionnaire in the form of rating scale to determine the food consumption patter, frequency and preference of the students with ADHD undergoing garden-based nutrition education, A pilot study on 20 students was conducted to find the reliability and validity ofthe questionnaire. The sample of the study consisted of 103 students with ADHD symptoms from schools of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam district which was categorized into two groups experimental (53) and control group (50). The study was conducted in three phases: l)Pre intervention assessment, 2)Garden based nutrition intervention and 3)Post intervention assessment. The garden-based nutrition intervention was imparted to the experimental group and the participation of the students were recorded by providing participation index score for each activity. The control group was only subjected to nutrition education intervention. The pre assessment included the anthropometric measurement, ADHD symptoms (using DSM IV), dietary recall, food frequency and food preference. The post assessment included ADHD symptoms, dietary recall, food frequency and food preference. The items used to evaluate the food frequency and food preference are sugarfTea, Juices, Candy, Ice-cream); maida (Parotta, Puffs, Biscuit, Bread); chocolate (Milk chocolate. Dark chocolate, Nut chocolate,Wafer chocolate ); bakery items (Cake, Jileebi, Ladoo, Chips) and fizzy drinks(Miranda, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Mountain dew). The result of the study shows that there is a significant difference between the pre and post ADHD scores ofexperimental groups and no significant difference were found in the pre and post ADHD scores of control group. The food frequency of food items like sugar, maida, chocolate, bakery items and fizzy drinks of the experimental group showed a significant difference in the pre and post intervention scores. However, in the control group the food frequency in the consumption of chocolate in the pre and post intervention was found to have no significant difference. But there was significant difference found in the consumption of sugar, maida, bakery items and fizzy drinks. Food preference of the food items of experimental and control group when compared, there were significant difference in the preference of all food items in the experimental group. In the control group, significant difference was found in the food preference of maida and chocolate and there was no significant difference found in the food preference of sugar, bakery items and fizzy drinks. The results also revealed that there is significant correlation between the participation index score of gardening with ADHD score in the experimental group. Thus, the study establishes that the ADHD symptoms were reduced in children who participated in the garden-based nutrition intervention. The study also showed that there is no significant correlation between the participation index score of nutrition education session with ADHD score in the control group. The results also depict that the ADHD scores reduced after eliminating food items like sugar, maida,chocolate, bakery items and fizzy drinks. The results of the study depict that when children with ADHD participated in the gardening activities after receiving nutrition education. The preference and the frequency of consumption of the food that triggers ADHD symptoms have reduced. It was also seen that when compared to control group which received only nutrition education. The experimental group showed significant changes in the food frequency and food preference towards the ADHD elimination food. Hence the present study reveals that gardening along with nutrition education can reduce the ADHD symptoms. Parent of the children of ADHD should have thorough understanding of the role of healthy diet and the elimination diet. It is also advisable that every school has a curriculum to

include gardening activities which can eventually reduce ADHD symptoms in children with ADHD.