Abstract
Background:
Daily physical activity is vital for the health and development of children. However, many children are inactive. Previous attempts to achieve sustained increases in daily physical activity in children have been ineffective. Join Us: Move Play (JU:MP) is a whole system, complex community-based intervention aiming to increase physical activity levels of children, aged 5-14 years, living in areas of Bradford, England, which are multi-cultural and have high deprivation.
Objective:
The purpose of this quasi-experimental control trial is to assess whether the JU:MP programme increases primary school children’s physical activity.
Methods:
The study design is a two-armed quasi-experimental non-blinded non-equivalent groups design study, conducted with primary school aged children (5-11years) at three time-points including baseline [before intervention], 24 months [during intervention], and 36 months [post intervention]. Children attending primary schools within the intervention area will be invited to participate. Children attending similar schools, within similar neighbourhoods based upon school and community census demographics (deprivation, free school meals, ethnicity) outside of the JU:MP geographical area will be invited to participate within the control condition. At each time point, consenting participants will wear an accelerometer for 7 days, 24 hours a day to measure the primary outcome – average daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Multivariable mixed effects linear regression will be applied to estimate differences in the primary outcome between the two arms at 24 months, and 36 months, on an Intention-to-Treat basis; and also the secondary outcome analysis, which will explore changes in socio-emotional well-being (teacher reported), quality of life (parental/carer reported) and other contextual factors (parents/carer reported); segments of the day activity, sleep, sedentary screen, frequency of places to be active, parent practices (non-directive support and autonomy support), social cohesion neighbourhood walking/exercise environment.
Results:
Recruitment occurred from July 2021 to March 2022, and baseline data collection from September 2021 to March 2022. As of March 2022 (end of baseline data collection) a total of 1454 children from 37 schools (17 intervention, 20 control schools) have been recruited. Follow-up data collections will occur first during September 2023 to March 2024, and the second and final follow-up data collection will occur during September 2024 to March 2025. Data analysis has not begun and final results to be published December 2025.
Conclusions:
This article describes the protocol for a quasi-experimental controlled trial examining a novel whole-systems intervention. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN; ISRCTN14332797, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN14332797
Daily physical activity is vital for the health and development of children. However, many children are inactive. Previous attempts to achieve sustained increases in daily physical activity in children have been ineffective. Join Us: Move Play (JU:MP) is a whole system, complex community-based intervention aiming to increase physical activity levels of children, aged 5-14 years, living in areas of Bradford, England, which are multi-cultural and have high deprivation.
Objective:
The purpose of this quasi-experimental control trial is to assess whether the JU:MP programme increases primary school children’s physical activity.
Methods:
The study design is a two-armed quasi-experimental non-blinded non-equivalent groups design study, conducted with primary school aged children (5-11years) at three time-points including baseline [before intervention], 24 months [during intervention], and 36 months [post intervention]. Children attending primary schools within the intervention area will be invited to participate. Children attending similar schools, within similar neighbourhoods based upon school and community census demographics (deprivation, free school meals, ethnicity) outside of the JU:MP geographical area will be invited to participate within the control condition. At each time point, consenting participants will wear an accelerometer for 7 days, 24 hours a day to measure the primary outcome – average daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Multivariable mixed effects linear regression will be applied to estimate differences in the primary outcome between the two arms at 24 months, and 36 months, on an Intention-to-Treat basis; and also the secondary outcome analysis, which will explore changes in socio-emotional well-being (teacher reported), quality of life (parental/carer reported) and other contextual factors (parents/carer reported); segments of the day activity, sleep, sedentary screen, frequency of places to be active, parent practices (non-directive support and autonomy support), social cohesion neighbourhood walking/exercise environment.
Results:
Recruitment occurred from July 2021 to March 2022, and baseline data collection from September 2021 to March 2022. As of March 2022 (end of baseline data collection) a total of 1454 children from 37 schools (17 intervention, 20 control schools) have been recruited. Follow-up data collections will occur first during September 2023 to March 2024, and the second and final follow-up data collection will occur during September 2024 to March 2025. Data analysis has not begun and final results to be published December 2025.
Conclusions:
This article describes the protocol for a quasi-experimental controlled trial examining a novel whole-systems intervention. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN; ISRCTN14332797, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN14332797
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | JMIR Publications |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Submitted - 18 Oct 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |