NCT01979978

Healthy Buddies Manitoba

Healthy Buddies Manitoba: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Effectiveness Trial of Peer Mentoring for Healthy Eights in Children.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 647 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Manitoba · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 7 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

School-based interventions are generally ineffective for preventing weight gain in children. In 2007, a group from the University of British Columbia, developed a program called Healthy Buddies, that relied on peer mentors to help young children adopt healthy living behaviours. Pilot studies revealed that the program effectively prevented weight gain in children. This trial had never been tested on a large scale using a more scientifically sound study design. We developed a large school-based randomized trial to overcome that limitation and test the hypothesis that that a school-based peer-led healthy living program would reduce adiposity and increase physical activity among children 6-12yrs old.

Conditions

• Healthy Children
• Elementary School Age
• Rural and Urban
• First Nations

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Healthy Buddies Curriculum	Each week, intermediate students will receive a 45-minute healthy-living lesson plan from their classroom teacher. Later that week, intermediate students will serve as peer mentors ("Buddies"), teaching a 30-minute lesson to their younger students. The Physical activity (i.e."Go Move!") component of the lesson plans includes 30-minutes of structured aerobic fitness sessions, called fitness loops, with the student pairs twice weekly. The dietary ("Go Fuel!") component includes lessons about distinguishing nutritious and from unhealthy (nutrient poor-energy rich) foods and beverages. The body image ("Go Feel Good!") component, the students are taught to value classmates based on individual traits rather than peer influence.

Timeline

• Start date: 2009-09-01
• Primary completion: 2010-06-01
• Completion: 2013-05-01
• First posted: 2013-11-08
• Last updated: 2013-11-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada