Tackling childhood obesity through a school-based physical activity programme: a cluster randomised trial

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a theory- and evidence-based intervention for promoting physical activity (PA) among children by changing PA-related psychosocial variables and reducing obesity and screen time outside school hours. A cluster randomised trial was conducted on two Lebanese elementary schools involving 374 children aged 10–12 years. While a control group received the standard curriculum, an intervention group received a 14-week school-based intervention comprising changes in the school environment, increased opportunities for PA provided by educational staff and PA-related learning activities. Measures included PA, psychosocial and obesity-related variables [body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and screen time outside school hours]. Measures were evaluated before the first week and in the last week of the intervention. Compared with the control group, significant increases were observed in the general PA levels and proportion of physically active children within 1 week. The proportion of children engaged in ≥30-min daily school-based moderate-to-vigorous PA MVPA increased from 0% to 67%. The intervention group showed significant improvement in almost all psychosocial variables. The children’s BMI class and waist circumference significantly reduced with the intervention. The intervention was effective in increasing the children’s general PA levels and school-based MVPA and in decreasing BMI and waist circumference.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• theory-based research
• behaviour change
• school health psychology
• childhood obesity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the children, parents and teachers as well as the school directors, head teachers and physical education teacher-coordinators of the participating schools for their support. The authors are also grateful to the statistician Myrto Mondor for her help in data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research work was financially supported by the Faculty of Nursing, Laval University, Quebec, Canada.