ACtive Children Enhance LEaRning and AttenTION: A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) (ACCELERATION)

University of Houston

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Inactivity

Treatments: Behavioral: ACtive Children Enhance LEaRning and AttenTION (ACCELERATION)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05794360

STUDY00003226

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effectiveness of sport-based physical education (PE) curriculum on activity behaviors (moderate to vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior), executive functions, and academic performance in elementary school-aged children, particularly among low-income ethnic minorities. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Whether a school-based sport program can improve child engagement in school-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and total daily MVPA, compared to a control group (standard PE class)?
• Whether a school-based sport program can improve child executive functions and academic performance, compared to a control group (standard PE class)?

Participants randomized to receive the ACtive Children Enhance LEaRning and AttenTION (ACCELERATION) intervention (treatment) received

• 45-minute weekly for 10 weeks soccer (ball mastery exercises) curriculum led by trained PE teachers during the school PE lesson time.
• Homework required practicing learned ball mastery skills daily for 15-20 minutes at home. A required ball was provided to them.
• Virtual parent workshops, which required the attendance of parents of study participants to improve their understanding of all about the program

Researchers will compare the control group, who received a regular PE class curriculum, to see if there are any differences in child activity behaviors, executive functions, and academic performance.

Enrollment: 257 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 11 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Any student enrolled in 3rd or 4th-grade classes were eligible to participate in the study.
2. Participation in an extracurricular sports activity wasn't an exclusion criterion for this study.

Exclusion criteria

1. Students were excluded if they had serious physical (e.g., asthma, heart diseases), developmental (e.g., autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity), or learning (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia) disorders that prevented them from participating in intervention activities
2. Students who participated in a physical activity intervention within the last 6 months were excluded.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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257 participants in 2 patient groups

ACCELERATION

Experimental group

Description:

Both study arms occurred during participants' PE class, once a week for 45 minutes for 10 weeks. The ACCELERATION curriculum is designed to improve children's MVPA through learning and practicing new and challenging sport skills in a fun and free-will learning environment that includes not only school but also home environment. The ACCELERATION focuses on introducing the ball to the child at a basic level. Ball mastery is a soccer term that simply refers to the ability to manipulate and play with the ball using all parts of the foot. Since this program was an individual pursuit, not a team endeavor, it was imperative that each student has their own ball during the PE class. The trained undergraduate interns assisted PE teachers to deliver this program to classrooms assigned into the treatment arm. The program trains parents via virtual workshops on delivering the program at home.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACtive Children Enhance LEaRning and AttenTION (ACCELERATION)

Standard PE

No Intervention group

Description:

Classrooms assigned to the control group received a 45-minute weekly regular PE curriculum for 10 weeks designed to meet state-mandated requirements. For the same research school, a standard PE curriculum was also delivered by the same PE teacher who delivered the intervention curriculum. However, additional training and support were not provided to PE teachers for the implementation of a regular PE curriculum.