NCT03817047

The Effect of Increased Physical Activity on Adolescents' Health and Academic Performance: The School in Motion Study

A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effect of Increased Physical Education and Physical Activity on Adolescents' Physical and Mental Health, Academic Performance and Learning Environment

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 2,045 (actual)
• Sponsor: Norwegian School of Sport Sciences · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study evaluates the effect of 120 minutes extra of physical education (PE) or physical activity (PA) on adolescents' physical health, mental health, academic performance and learning environment. This is a cluster-randomized controlled trial with three arms, where the participants in two of the groups will have different models of increased PE/PA during the school week, whereas the participants in the third arm is the control group including current practice.

Detailed description

This is a school-based, three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) recruiting adolescents from secondary schools in Norway. Adolescents (aged 14-15 years) were the unit of analysis, and schools (clusters) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1. the physical active learning group (PAL-group), where the schools each week include one additional physical education (PE) lesson, 30 minutes of physical active learning, and 30 minutes of physical activity (intervention condition); 2. the don't worry - be happy group (DWBH-group), where the schools include one new activity class (60 minutes: Be Happy class) and one additional PE-class (60 minutes: Don't Worry class) per week (intervention condition);or 3. current practice (control condition). An identical set of outcome measures are taken from all participants at baseline, and approximately 12 months after the baseline measures, when the participants were at the end of year 9

Conditions

• Physical Activity
• Academic Achievement
• Mental Health

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Physical education	Physical education (60 minutes): In addition to the ordinary PE-lessons. The pedagogical activities taught in this lesson should be in line with the curriculum of 9th grade and led by the PE-teacher. In the Don't worry - be happy intervention this class was also organized by the students. The students practiced their Be Happy-activities, or they introduced their class peers to their "Be Happy"-activity. A PE-teacher was present to support the students if necessary.
BEHAVIORAL	Physical active learning	The curriculum of the subjects (i.e. maths, English, Norwegian) were taught in a physically active manner. The lesson should last 30 minutes and be led by the teacher of the current subject.
BEHAVIORAL	Physical activity	Without a connection to any specific subject "Physical activity" should be performed as 30 minutes a week. There are no specific aims to be taught in this lesson, but physical activities that stimulates mastery, joy and well-being should be in focus.
BEHAVIORAL	Be happy	The Be Happy classes were self-organized activity groups of at least three students, developed according to activity preferences across regular classes. The Be Happy groups practiced traditional sports and physical activities, lifestyle sports, dancing, out-door recreation, drama etc. - inside or outside school.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-04-03
• Primary completion: 2018-06-22
• Completion: 2018-06-22
• First posted: 2019-01-25
• Last updated: 2019-01-28

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Norway