Universal Free School Meals Tied to Better Blood Pressure

FRIDAY, Oct. 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Universal free school meal policies, such as the Community Eligibility Provision, may be associated with improved blood pressure in students, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Network Open.

Anna M. Localio, Ph.D., from University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues assessed whether school-level adoption of the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with childhood blood pressure outcomes. The analysis included 1,052 schools matched to 155,778 distinct patients aged 4 to 18 years. 

The researchers found that school participation in the Community Eligibility Provision was associated with a −2.71 percentage point (P = 0.03) net reduction in the proportion of patients with a high blood pressure measurement, corresponding to a −10.8 percent net decrease over five years. There was a negative association between participation and the proportion of patients with a hypertensive measurement and with the mean diastolic blood pressure.

“In previous work on the health impacts of universal free school meals, our team found that adoption of free meals is associated with decreases in average body mass index (BMI) scores and childhood obesity prevalence, which are closely linked to risk of high blood pressure,” senior author Jessica Jones-Smith, Ph.D., from University of California, Irvine, said in a statement. “So in addition to directly affecting blood pressure through provision of healthier meals, a second pathway by which providing universal free meals might impact blood pressure is through their impact on lowering risk for high BMI.”

Abstract/Full Text