Multi-component Intervention to Increase Physical Activity in Preschool Children (SHAPES)

University of South Carolina

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Other: Physical Activity Preschool Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01885325

1R01HD055451 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Pro00004884

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study addresses a critical public health problem, childhood obesity, by testing a physical activity intervention in the types of preschools that millions of children attend. Information gained in this study may lead to adoption of preschool policies and instructional practices that increase physical activity and reduce the risk of obesity in preschool children.

Full description

Obesity rates in 3-5 year-old American children have increased dramatically in recent decades. Concurrent with this alarming trend, time spent by young children in preschool settings has increased and their time spent in unstructured play has decreased. Recent studies have shown that children in preschools are engaged primarily in sedentary activities. Nonetheless, few interventions designed to increase PA or decrease sedentary behavior have been evaluated in preschool children. The proposed investigation tested a multicomponent intervention designed to increase physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) in 3-5 year-old children. Sixteen preschools were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. 500 children, in two annual waves of ~250 children, participated in the measurement protocol at baseline and after exposure to the intervention for 9 months. Child-level measures included moderate-to-vigorous PA, sedentary behavior, and PAEE measured by accelerometry; height, weight and waist circumference; and demographics. The intervention consisted of four components: Move IN (physical education and other indoor activity programming), Move OUT (recess and structured outdoor activity), Move to Learn (PA in classroom, academic lessons), and enhancing the social environment to promote PA. The study's intervention coordinator worked with the preschool directors, teachers, and assistant teachers to facilitate intervention implementation by providing training, materials, and ongoing support and feedback. An extensive process evaluation documented the extent to which the intervention was implemented. Effects of the intervention on PA, sedentary behavior, PAEE, and weight status were determined. In addition, the study examined factors that associate with change in physical activity, sedentary behavior, physical activity energy expenditure and body mass index during a school year in preschool children.

Enrollment: 708 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• All children from participating K-4 classrooms at the participating schools were invited to participate.

Exclusion criteria

• Children were excluded only if they had a condition that would limit data collection using an accelerometer (e.g., non-ambulatory children)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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708 participants in 2 patient groups

Physical Activity Preschool Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Preschools randomized to the multi-component physical activity preschool intervention received four major components: Move IN (physical education and other indoor activity programming), Move OUT (recess and structured outdoor activity), Move to Learn (Physical Activity in classroom, academic lessons), and enhancing the social environment to promote Physical Activity.

Treatment:

Other: Physical Activity Preschool Intervention

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The preschools in the control group did not receive the intervention