Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
The aim of the Activating Schoolyards Study is to develop, implement, document and assess a comprehensive schoolyard intervention to promote physical activity during school recess for primary school children (grade 4-8). The intervention involves making organizational and structural changes in the schoolyard environment.
Who can participate?
Students grade 4-8 from 7 schools in Denmark
What does the study involve?
The schoolyard interventions are developed involving students in the process. It was up to the schools to decide how the students participate in the process. Therefore, the intervention components vary widely reflecting the local challenges and needs. At some of the schools the interventions take place in the existing schoolyard whereas other schools expand their outdoor area by including adjacent spaces (e.g., woodland area and parking ground). However, some features are present at several schools such as climbing walls, balance bars, theatre/dancing stages, skating areas, trampolines, hills, ball game facilities and outdoor eating areas. There are also similarities in the organisational changes, for example a policy obliging the children to stay outdoors for parts of their recess is implemented at several schools. The interventions take place during 2015 and the total budget for each of the schools ranged from 120,000 to 900,000 USD. Children representing the target group (grade 4-8) for the schoolyard intervention at each of the seven schools participate at two timepoints, April to June 2014 and in the same months in 2016 (after the intervention). The intervention is during the whole year of 2015. In April to June 2018 a late follow-up is conducted in grade 4 and 6. The effect of the interventions is assessed by students wearing an accelerometer and GPS to determine where they are in the schoolyard and how active they are.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
The class with the most participants receives a prize (sports equipment). There are no risks of participating.
Where is the study run from?
University of Southern Denmark
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2013 to April 2019
Who is funding the study?
1. Danish Cancer Society
2. Realdania
3. Lokale og anlægsfonden
Who is the main contact?
Charlotte Skau Pawlowski
cspawlowski@health.sdu.dk
Trial website
Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Mrs Charlotte Skau Pawlowski
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1407-613X
Contact details
Campusvej 55
Odense M
5230
Denmark
+45 (0)61665006
cspawlowski@health.sdu.dk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
2013-41-1900
Study information
Scientific title
Drøn på Skolegården (The Activating Schoolyard Study)
Acronym
Study hypothesis
The trialists hypothesize that a high degree of user involvement, tailored inventive schoolyard interventions and organisational recess changes would lead to increased recess PA among students.
Ethics approval
Data management and security with regards to this study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (2013-41-1900). According to the Danish National Committee on Health Research Ethics, formal ethical approval was not required as the project was not a biomedical research project.
Study design
A quasi-experimental schoolyard intervention study using a mixed method approach including: 1) an exploratory study aimed at providing input for the developing process; 2) an evaluation of the effect of the interventions using a combination of accelerometer and GPS at baseline and follow-up to determine where and how active the students are in the schoolyard, before and after the intervention; 3) a post-intervention end-user evaluation aimed at exploring who uses the schoolyards and how the schoolyards are used.
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Non randomised study
Trial setting
Schools
Trial type
Prevention
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format, please use the contact details to request a patient information sheet
Condition
Physical activity
Intervention
The schoolyard interventions were developed using a participatory bottom-up approach involving students in the development process. It was up to the schools to decide how the students participated in the process. Therefore, the design and dimension of the intervention components varied widely reflecting the local challenges and needs. At some of the schools the interventions took place in the existing schoolyard whereas other schools expanded their outdoor area by including adjacent spaces (e.g., woodland area and parking ground). However, some features were presented at several schools such as climbing walls, balance bars, theatre/dancing stages, skating areas, trampolines, hills, ball game facilities and outdoor eating areas. There were also similarities in the organisational changes, e.g., a policy obliging the children to stay outdoors parts of their recess was implemented at several schools. The interventions took place during 2015 and the total budget for each of the schools ranged from 120,000 to 900,000 USD.
Children representing the target group (grade 4-8) for the schoolyard intervention at each of the seven schools participated at two timepoints, April to June 2014 (baseline) and in the same months in 2016 (post-intervention). The intervention was during the whole year of 2015. In April to June 2018 a late follow-up was conducted in grade 4 and 6. Children were not followed over time avoiding the age-dependent decline in physical activity.
Intervention type
Behavioural
Phase
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
Physical activity level, measured by wearing accelerometer and GPS for one week at two timepoints, between April to June 2014 (baseline) and in the same months in 2016 (post-intervention)
Secondary outcome measures
Where the students are e.g., indoors/outdoors, measured by wearing accelerometer and GPS for one week at two timepoints, between April to June 2014 (baseline) and in the same months in 2016 (post-intervention)
Overall trial start date
01/01/2013
Overall trial end date
01/04/2019
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Students grade 4-8 from 7 schools in Denmark
Participant type
Other
Age group
Child
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
1200
Participant exclusion criteria
1. Unhealthy students
2. Students from grade 0-3
Recruitment start date
01/04/2013
Recruitment end date
01/07/2018
Locations
Countries of recruitment
Denmark
Trial participating centre
University of Southern Denmark
Campusvej 55
Odense M
5230
Denmark
Sponsor information
Organisation
Danish Cancer Society
Sponsor details
Strandboulevarden 49
Copenhagen Ø
2100
Denmark
+45 (0)35 25 75 00
info@cancer.dk
Sponsor type
Charity
Website
Organisation
Realdania
Sponsor details
Jarmers Plads 2
Copenhagen V
1551
Denmark
+45 (0)70 11 66 66
realdania@realdania.dk
Sponsor type
Charity
Website
Organisation
The Danish foundation for Culture and Sport Facilities
Sponsor details
Kanonbådsvej 4 A
Copenhagen K
1437
Denmark
+45 (0)3283 0330
fonden@loa-fonden.dk
Sponsor type
Charity
Website
Funders
Funder type
Charity
Funder name
Kræftens Bekæmpelse
Alternative name(s)
Danish Cancer Society
Funding Body Type
private sector organisation
Funding Body Subtype
Other non-profit
Location
Denmark
Funder name
Realdania
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
private sector organisation
Funding Body Subtype
professional associations and societies
Location
Denmark
Funder name
Lokale og anlægsfonden
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
The protocol is already published and is available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26026650. Planned publication of approximately seven papers in high-impact peer reviewed journals before 01/01/2020.
IPD sharing statement
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are/will be available upon request from Henriette Bondo Andersen (hbandersen@health.sdu.dk).
Intention to publish date
01/01/2020
Participant level data
Available on request
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
1. 2014 focus group results in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24958158
2. 2015 protocol in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26026650
3. Pawlowski CS, Schipperijn J, Duncan S, Troelsen, J. (2015) ‘Promotion of physical activity among children: can we learn from New Zealand recess practices?’ Forum for Idræt, Vol. 1, s. 9-21
4. 2015 results in: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.913.6829&rep=rep1&type=pdf
5. 2016 results in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26859288
6. 2016 results in: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1356336X16664748
7. 2016 results in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26733382