Childhood Obesity
Conditions
Keywords
MVPA, Healthy Eating, children, childhood obesity
Brief summary
The investigators long-term goal is to increase the number of Summer Day Camps (SDC) that meet the National Afterschool Association Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) Standards. The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention designed to increase children's PA levels and improve the quality of lunches and snacks children consume in SDCs. The HEPA intervention is designed to target children, parents, staff, program leaders, and the SDC environment and uses a train-the-trainer model with SDC leaders to train their staff to deliver and integrate the intervention into routine practice. In the proposed study, the investigators will evaluate these HEPA strategies, using a 4-year randomized controlled trial with 20 SDCs. An important feature of the study will be the evaluation of maintenance of the intervention after the removal of research support (e.g., training, boosters) during the final year, as well as costs associated with implementation. The investigators hypothesize that intervention SDCs will achieve significantly greater increases in HEPA, compared to control SDCs. The investigators expect the study to support the cost-effectiveness and maintenance of our strategies for promoting HEPA that will facilitate SDCs meeting newly-established HEPA standards for this setting.
Detailed description
The investigators aim to: Evaluate the impact of the HEPA interventions on: 1.) The proportion of children meeting the PA Standard (i.e., ≥60min MVPA/d) while attending summer day camp; 2.) The proportion of foods (e.g., fruit, vegetable, water) children and staff bring and consume at the summer day camp that meet the HE Standards; and 3/) Changes in children's age-sex specific BMI percentile from the start to end of summer Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the HEPA intervention Evaluate the maintenance of the HEPA intervention in summer day camps
Interventions
BEHAVIORALHealthy Eating and Physical Activity
The Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) intervention aims to increase the quality of foods and beverages and physical activity opportunities in summer day camps. Through staff-level training, physical activity opportunities are modified to provide children with a substantial amount of meaningful physical activity. Through working with foods service providers, changes to the types of foods and beverages served will be made.
Sponsors
University of South Carolina
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Years to 14 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Summer Day camps will be eligible if: * They operate for at least 10 weeks during the summer * They do not have any primary focus such as sports, art, or tutoring (must be a general camp) * Enrollment is at least 40 campers * Operation hours are at least 8 hours.
Exclusion criteria
* Children will be unable to wear an activity monitor if experience any physical and/or orthopedic impairment that limits the child's ability to participate in regular PA (e.g., wheelchair user)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Changes in percentage of children meeting 60min of MVPA | Year 1 - Year 4 | Changes in percentage of children at each summer day camp that meet the National Afterschool Alliance Standard of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in percentage of children bringing/consuming healthy foods/beverages | Year 1 - Year 4 | Trained observers will record the foods/beverages brought/consumed at SDC - snacks and lunches |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed