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Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Dissemination of Action Schools! BC (AS!BC)

This study has been completed.
Sponsor:
Collaborators:
University of Victoria
University of Waterloo
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
BC Ministry of Education
BC Ministry of Health
BC Ministry of Tourism, Sport, and the Arts
Provincial Health Services Authority
JW Sporta
2010 Legacies Now
Information provided by:
University of British Columbia
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT01412203
First received: August 5, 2011
Last updated: NA
Last verified: August 2011
History: No changes posted
  Purpose

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.


Condition Intervention
Physical Activity
Obesity
Physical Fitness
 Behavioral: Action Schools! BC

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Open Label
Primary Purpose: Prevention
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

Resource links provided by NLM:

U.S. FDA Resources

Further study details as provided by University of British Columbia:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • Physical activity opportunities delivered (minutes/week) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    School level; as measured by Weekly Teacher Logs and Interim Reports

  • School environment scores [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    School level; as measured by a modified School Health Inventory

  • Height (cm) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level

  • Weight (kg) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level

  • Body mass index (kg/m^2) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level

  • Physical fitness (Fitnessgram (C)) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level

  • Children's leisure time physical activity (PAQ-C) [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level

  • Children's dietary intake [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    Student level; 24 hour recall and food frequency survey

  • Physical activity interventions planned [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
    School level; as measured by Action Plans


Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Contextual factors surrounding the use of the intervention [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

    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


Enrollment: 1529
Study Start Date: April 2005
Study Completion Date: June 2007
Primary Completion Date: June 2007 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Arms Assigned Interventions
No Intervention: Usual Practice
School continues with regular programming
Experimental: Action Schools! BC
School adopts the AS!BC model
 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 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.

  Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:   8 Years to 12 Years
Genders Eligible for Study:   Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   Yes
Criteria

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
  Contacts and Locations
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01412203

Locations
Canada, British Columbia
University of British Columbia - Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Z 1M9
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8P 5C2
Sponsors and Collaborators
University of British Columbia
University of Victoria
University of Waterloo
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
BC Ministry of Education
BC Ministry of Health
BC Ministry of Tourism, Sport, and the Arts
Provincial Health Services Authority
JW Sporta
2010 Legacies Now
Investigators
Principal Investigator: PJ Naylor, PhD University of Victoria
Principal Investigator: Heather A McKay, PhD University of British Columbia
  More Information

Additional Information:
Intervention website  This link exits the ClinicalTrials.gov site

Publications:

Additional publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):

Responsible Party: Heather McKay, University British Columbia - Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01412203     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers: H05-80505
Study First Received: August 5, 2011
Last Updated: August 5, 2011
Health Authority: Canada: Health Canada

Keywords provided by University of British Columbia:
Physical activity
Healthy weight
Healthy eating
Physical fitness
Children
School based
 Community based
Obesity
Health promotion
Socio-ecological
Environment based

Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Obesity
Overnutrition
Nutrition Disorders
 Overweight
Body Weight
Signs and Symptoms

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 22, 2013