Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Dissemination of Action Schools! BC

Obesity Clinical Trial

— AS!BC  

Official title:

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Dissemination of Action Schools! BC: A Socio-ecological Intervention to Increase Physical Activity and Healthy Eating in School Children

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01412203
• Other study ID #: H05-80505
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 2005
• Est. completion date: June 2007

Study information

• Verified date: October 2019
• Source: University of British Columbia
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Childhood obesity is a major public health threat. Physical activity and healthy eating contribute to the maintenance of healthy weights. Individually oriented behaviour change programs may not be able to overcome the influence of what has been called an obesogenic environment. Action Schools! BC (AS! BC) used a socio-ecological approach to enhance opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating in elementary schools and created systemic change at the provincial level. AS! BC helps elementary schools customize action plans, based upon their local context, to contribute to the health and well-being of children and the school community. Pilot research showed that AS! BC was an effective and feasible model. The provincial dissemination of AS! BC has been launched and partners from across many sectors are involved to enhance the sharing of knowledge and increase the implementation of the AS! BC model across British Columbia. The dissemination provides an unprecedented opportunity for evaluating how changing the school environment can promoted healthy weights in children. The dissemination was evaluated using a cluster randomized design; 30 elementary schools (n = 1529 consented children) from four (out of five) provincial health authorities volunteered to participate.

The primary goals of the research are:

1. to determine if the Action Schools! BC (AS! BC) model is an effective approach to positively change school environments and health related behaviours of children from diverse geographical regions and cultural groups, and

2. to determine if the supports provided to schools or the community context influence the uptake and use of the AS! BC model.

This research will contribute to the science of obesity prevention and knowledge use as well as public health practice.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1529
• Est. completion date: June 2007
• Est. primary completion date: June 2007
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 8 Years to 12 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Student attends a school that has agreed to participate in the study

• Student's classroom teacher has agreed to participate in the study

• Student is in grade 4 or 5 at start of study

• Student participates in regular physical education classes at school

• Student's parents provide consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Student does not attend a school that has agreed to participate in the study

• Student's classroom teacher does not agree to participate in the study

• Student is not in grade 4 or 5 at start of study

• Student does not participate in regular physical education classes at school

• Student's parents do not provide consent

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Obesity
• Physical Activity
• Physical Fitness

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Action Schools! BC
AS! BC applies a socioecological, whole school approach to promote healthy living within the elementary school context. Schools are provided with the tools and support needed to create customized action plans that promote physical activity (PA) and healthy living across six Action Zones (School Environment, Scheduled Physical Education (PE), Classroom Action, Family and Community, Extra-curricular, School Spirit). Generalist teachers receive training and resources to implement their Action Plan with the ultimate goal of providing students with 150 minutes of PA/week. The model is choice-based; teachers are asked to provide 15 additional minutes of PA/day within the Classroom Action Zone. The activities require minimal equipment and can be performed in the classroom, hallway or on the school playground.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	University of British Columbia - Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute	Vancouver	British Columbia
Canada	University of Victoria	Victoria	British Columbia

Sponsors (11)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of British Columbia	2010 Legacies Now, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, JW Sporta, Ministry of Education, British Columbia, Ministry of Health, British Columbia, Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, British Columbia, Provincial Health Services Authority, University of Victoria, University of Waterloo

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

References & Publications (2)

Naylor PJ, Macdonald HM, Reed KE, McKay HA. Action Schools! BC: a socioecological approach to modifying chronic disease risk factors in elementary school children. Prev Chronic Dis. 2006 Apr;3(2):A60. Epub 2006 Mar 15. — View Citation

Naylor PJ, Macdonald HM, Zebedee JA, Reed KE, McKay HA. Lessons learned from Action Schools! BC--an 'active school' model to promote physical activity in elementary schools. J Sci Med Sport. 2006 Oct;9(5):413-23. Epub 2006 Aug 1. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Physical activity opportunities delivered (minutes/week)	School level; as measured by Weekly Teacher Logs and Interim Reports
Primary	School environment scores	School level; as measured by a modified School Health Inventory
Primary	Height (cm)	Student level
Primary	Weight (kg)	Student level
Primary	Body mass index (kg/m^2)	Student level
Primary	Physical fitness (Fitnessgram (C))	Student level
Primary	Children's leisure time physical activity (PAQ-C)	Student level
Primary	Children's dietary intake	Student level; 24 hour recall and food frequency survey
Primary	Physical activity interventions planned	School level; as measured by Action Plans
Secondary	Contextual factors surrounding the use of the intervention	School level; School and community partnership survey; Annual focus groups with school planning teams, regional advisory committees, parent advisory committees, the local healthy living alliance; Semi-structured telephone interviews with school administrators, AS! BC regional facilitators, public health nursing staff, local nutritionist, municipal recreation staff and representatives of non-government organizations involved in chronic disease prevention locally; Review of AS! BC annual reports and action plans; Participant observation form to assess development of communities of practice

External Links

•   Intervention website