NCT04569578

Increasing Children's Physical Activity by Policy (CAP)

Increasing Children's Physical Activity by Policy (CAP): a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in the Stockholm Region Preschools

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 4,000 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Karolinska Institutet · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 5 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Levels of physical activity (PA) and physical fitness in children are low and declining, both globally and in Sweden. Preschools are important settings with the potential to influence the majority (\>93%) of Swedish children's PA behaviors in early stage of life (\<5 years). Preschool policy is an organizational level factor associated with children's PA but the casual link remains unclear. A cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a policy package for children's PA levels and other relevant health indicators.

Detailed description

The overarching aim of the proposed project is to examine the effects of implementing physical activity (PA) policies in preschools on PA and indicators of health in young children. The proposed project is a unique collaboration between the applicants and Stockholm stad which will result in PA policies, that will be implemented in all 658 public preschools within the Stockholm region, having the possibility to affect more than 38 000 children. The current study is designed as a cluster randomized controlled trial with 2 conditions (intervention vs. control) and preschools serving as the unit of randomization. Measures of primary and secondary outcomes will be obtained at baseline and at 6-months on an individual level. This study will provide robust evidence of the effect of structural changes, at the organizational level of preschools, on children's PA and indicators of health. Notably, such robust evidence is urgently warranted as Swedish preschool children's PA levels are low which will have long-lasting effects on their lives. Finally, as the intervention has been developed in co-creation with Stockholm stad it has the possibility to, if proven effective, be implemented rapidly within preschools.

Conditions

• Physical Activity
• Sedentary Behavior

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Policy	The intervention will include: i. Formalized physical activity policies implemented in preschools including the following: 1. A minimum of 3 hours of total daily outdoor time scheduled both in the morning and in the afternoon 2. At least 10 minutes teacher-led active play per day 3. A minimum of 1 weekly outdoor excursion 4. Meet the children outdoors when they arrive at preschool and/or picked up by their parents 5. Only use screen tablets and computers for educational teaching purposes 6. Communicating to, and encouraging, the parents to actively transport their children to and from preschools ii. A study website with an activity bank also serving as a platform for inter-professional education that preschool teachers can share and communicate about engaging activities and experience iii. Weekly follow-up and feedback by web-based questionnaires

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-09-23
• Primary completion: 2021-07-02
• Completion: 2021-12-31
• First posted: 2020-09-30
• Last updated: 2021-09-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Sweden