Effectiveness of a Multicomponent Intervention to Promote Physical Activity Levels During the School Day (MOVESCHOOL)

University of Extremadura

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Physical Fitness; Adolescents; Physical Activity; Cognition

Treatments: Behavioral: Multicomponent school-based intervention.

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06254638

CNS2022-135604

PID2022-137450OA-I00 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Study based a multicomponent school-based intervention during the school-day (i.e., Physically active learning, active breaks, and active recess) on Physical Activity, health, educational, and cognition outcomes in adolescents.

Full description

MOVESCHOOLS is a randomized controlled study coordinated by fully qualified researchers in physical activity and sport sciences from two universities [University of Cadiz (UCA) and University of Extremadura (UEX), Spain]. This study is aimed at year 1 to year 3 from Secondary Education students (11-16 years old), belonging to 10 schools in Spain (5 schools in Cadiz and 5 schools in Caceres). The schools will be randomly assigned to a control group (n = 5 schools and 420 students) and an intervention group (n = 5 schools and 420 students). The intervention will last 6 months, and will consist of three components:

Inclusion of two physically active classes per week. Development of two daily active breaks of 4 minutes duration. Implementation of daily active recesses.

Before and after the intervention, Physical Activity and sedentary time will be assessed by accelerometry, health-related fitness levels by field tests, body composition parameters by anthropometry, academic performance by school grades, positive health (quality of life and self-perception of health) by questionnaire, and cognitive parameters (executive functions and mathematical fluency) by specific cognition tests. In weeks 8 and 16, Physical Activity and sedentary time will also be evaluated as intermediate measures.

At the end of the intervention the researchers will determine the changes of the main outcome variables. Likewise, the main hypotheses raised will be:

Students belonging to the experimental group will improve physical activity and will decrease sedentary time during the school-day when comparing to the students belonging to the control group. Students belonging to the experimental group will result in improved in physical and psychological health markers when comparing to the students belonging to the control group. Students belonging to the experimental group will result in improved academic indicators and cognitive markers when comparing to the students belonging to the control group. Students belonging to the experimental group will improve school climate and motivational variables in academic classes compared to students belonging to the control group.

Enrollment: 900 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 16 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adolescents in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of ESO.
• Adolescents with informed consent signed by the family/guardian.
• Schools with at least 80 students enrolled in 1st, 2nd and 3rd ESO.
• Schools belonging to the regions of Cáceres and Cádiz.

Exclusion criteria

• Adolescents with any physical disability or health condition that may limit physical activity levels.
• Schools participating in any other physical activity or health promotion program.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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900 participants in 2 patient groups

Multicomponent school-based intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The multicomponent intervention will be composed of: Physically Active Learning: consists of incorporating physical activity (usually of moderate-vigorous intensity) into the educational content taught in non-physical education academic classes. Active breaks: consists of short breaks during non-physical education academic classes that include moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity. Active Recess: consists of promoting PA during school breaks. To this end, three strategies will be developed: i) modification of the environment; ii) loose equipment; iii) structured recess. The modification of the environment will consist of providing students with a greater number of spaces for them to be active during recess. Access to sports equipment consists of providing sports equipment to encourage PA practice during recess. Structured recess includes the organization of sports competitions and teacher-led activities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Multicomponent school-based intervention.

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will receive the usual academic classes without any methodological modification during the intervention period.