Physical Exercise for Education ('Fit to Study') (FTS)

April 18, 2022 updated by: Helen Dawes, Oxford Brookes University
Neuroscience evidence suggests that physical exercise can influence brain function and structure, both immediately and in the long-term. The 'Fit to Study' project is a randomised controlled trial to test the effects on academic performance (as well as fitness, wellbeing and cognitive function) of a teacher-training intervention designed to optimise the content of PE for brain and cognitive function during secondary school (Year 8) Physical Education (PE) lessons. The project aims to rigorously test the impact of this intervention in 100 state-funded secondary schools.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Physical exercise has been shown to have positive effects on the brain and to improve cognitive performance, both immediately and in the long-term. This project is being conducted to understand better how the content of school PE, focusing on Year8 pupils during the academic year 2017/18, affects brain function and structure, and academic performance.

A programme of activities for PE lessons has been developed by Oxford Brookes University (in collaboration with Oxfordshire Sport and Physical Activity) to try to optimise the benefit of PE for brain function. Staff from Oxford Brookes University will train PE teachers to deliver this programme.

'Fit to Study' is aiming to recruit 100 state-funded secondary schools from within a radius of Oxford.

The National Foundation for Education Research will help with recruitment by sending materials to target schools, collating responses, collecting pupil information from schools that sign up, and passing information to the research teams and NatCen Social Research (who will be responsible for randomisation). Participating schools will be randomly assigned to either an Intervention Group (IG) and be asked to deliver the new PE programme, or to a Control Group (CG) and asked to continue with their normal PE lessons. Randomisation will be achieved using a random sequence generated using Stata12. Balance between treatment and control groups will be achieved across a range of covariates (i.e. to ensure not all girls schools are assigned to one condition).

For both Groups there will be a number of activities for schools to undertake, both at the start, during, and at the end of the study. The key tasks are listed, and then described, below:

  • Online Cognitive Tests (pre- and post-study)
  • Wellbeing Questionnaires (pre- and post-study)
  • Physical Activity Assessments (before and during the study)
  • PE Teacher Training for Intervention Schools
  • Fitness (Beep) Tests (pre- and post-study)
  • NatCen will undertake an Independent Evaluation of the 'Fit to Study' programme.

In all schools, the pupils in the target year group will undergo baseline assessments (in the final term of Year 7), which will comprise tests of physical fitness; cognitive assessments; and questionnaires (about physical activity, sleep patterns, mood, motivation and wellbeing). The tests of physical fitness will be administered during PE lessons and will involve measures of speed and endurance. The school PE teachers will be involved in the administration of these tests. The cognitive tests (which will include tests of memory, executive functions and attention using button responses), and some of the questionnaires, will be computer-based and may be administered over the web, at school or at home, using a well-established online testing package.

PE teachers in the intervention condition schools will be trained to administer our intervention. Our training package will comprise a set of focused lesson principles and techniques for their delivery.

To foster friendly competition between schools, the investigators may produce newsletters/bulletins containing school league tables indicating summary physical activity levels during PE and/or proportion of assessments completed, but these will never contain individual pupils' data.

The investigators will use activity monitors to compare physical activity during intervention and control PE lessons. At the end of the intervention period (which is intended to be an academic year), the Year 8 pupils in all schools will repeat the assessments.

In addition, the University of Oxford will be conducting a sub-study with a small number of pupils from a subset of schools. This is an optional part of the project and will be subject to separate written / informed consent from the pupils' parents/guardians. This will involve MRI brain scanning at the University of Oxford, as well as additional fitness and cognitive tests. Further detail will be made available to schools that are selected to take part in the Main Study (from May 2017).

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
20000

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Oxfordshire
      • Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, OX3 0BP
        • Oxford Brookes University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

11 years to 14 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Inclusion is by school year group - typically aged 11-14:

  • Year 7 pupils during the academic year 2016/17 (Age 11-12, KS3).
  • Year 8 pupils during the academic year 2017/18 (Age 12-13, KS3).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any pupils that are exempted from PE.
  • Pupils that have 'opted out' of data sharing / storage for research purposes

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
No Intervention: Control Group
The Control Group will be asked to continue with their normal PE lessons.
Experimental: Intervention Group
'Physical Education (PE) Programme'
Behavioral: Physical Education (PE) Programme

A programme of activities for PE lessons has been developed by Oxford Brookes University (in collaboration with Oxfordshire Sport and Physical Activity) to try to optimise the benefit of PE for brain function. Staff from Oxford Brookes University will train PE teachers to deliver this programme.

The Intervention involves roughly 20 minutes of prescribed activities per week, to be delivered within school PE lessons.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mathematical attainment: as measured using the level 13 Progress in Maths test (provided at GL assessment) at the end of the school year (June 2018).
Time Frame: 1 hour: Last month of the study (June 2018).

The Primary Outcome Measure is recorded on the ISRCTN registry with study ID ISRCTN15730512.

Mathematical attainment as measured using the level 13 Progress in Maths test (provided at GL assessment) at the end of the school year.
1 hour: Last month of the study (June 2018).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Wellbeing Survey
Time Frame: 30 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
A battery of surveys each including a number of measures: adolescent mental health and wellbeing; daytime sleepiness; physical and global self-esteem; PE enjoyment; single measures of health-related quality of life and weekly moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); attitudes, social norms, competence, intentions and willingness in relation to physical activity. Approximately 60 questions in total, taking 30 minutes to complete.
30 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Cognitive Test of Attention and Reaction Time
Time Frame: 10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
This is one of five (computer-based) cognitive tasks developed via jsPsych that are completed by participants at one sitting. It is an attention/ reaction-time task, to appearance of red triangles on the screen.
10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Cognitive Test of Memory (Image Associates)
Time Frame: 10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
This is one of five (computer-based) cognitive tasks developed via jsPsych that are completed by participants at one sitting. It is an (image) association of place, person and object (memory) task.
10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Eriksen Flanker Test
Time Frame: 10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
This is one of five (computer-based) cognitive tasks developed via jsPsych that are completed by participants at one sitting. It is a (modified) Eriksen Flanker task.
10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Cognitive Test of Memory (Two-back Image Task)
Time Frame: 10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
This is one of five (computer-based) cognitive tasks developed via jsPsych that are completed by participants at one sitting. It is a two-back image (memory) task (saying whether a picture is the same as the one before last).
10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Cognitive Test of Executive Function
Time Frame: 10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
This is one of five (computer-based) cognitive tasks developed via jsPsych that are completed by participants at one sitting. It is a task-switching (executive function) task (arms up or arms down characters in relation to shape or colour questions).
10 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Fitness Assessment (20m Beep Test)
Time Frame: 20 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
A distance of 20m is measured; cones are placed at lines indicating the distance. Pupils stand behind one of the lines facing the 2nd line, and begin running when instructed by an audio recording. The pupils continue running between the two lines, turning when signalled by the recorded beeps. After one minute, a sound indicates an increase in speed, and the beeps will be closer together. This continues each minute (level). If the line is reached before the beep sounds, the subject must wait until the beep sounds before continuing. If the line is not reached before the beep sounds, the subject is given a warning and must continue to run to the line, then turn and try to catch up with the pace within two more 'beeps'. The test is stopped if the subject fails to reach the line (within 2m) for two consecutive ends after a warning. Participants are instructed to remember the last number that was called before they stopped and tell the teacher who is recording the scores.
20 minutes: Baseline (June 2017) and final month of the study (June 2018)
Physical Activity Measurements
Time Frame: 60 minutes: Baseline (June 2017), at 14 weeks, at 28 weeks and final month of the study (June 2018).
All pupils will be provided with wrist-worn Axivity AX3 accelerometers, to be worn on the non-dominant wrist, to record their physical activity (PA) during a PE lesson. The AX3 is a tri-axial accelerometer which measures linear acceleration from +/- 2g to +/- 16g range along three orthogonal axes known as 'z' (upward and downward), 'y' (left and right) and 'x' (forward and backward).
60 minutes: Baseline (June 2017), at 14 weeks, at 28 weeks and final month of the study (June 2018).

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Oxford Brookes University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
University of Oxford

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Helen Dawes, Oxford Brookes University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
May 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
July 1, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
August 16, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 13, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
September 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 20, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 18, 2022

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • EEF2681 (Education Endowment Foundation)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

On conclusion of the project, the Fischer Family Trust (see http://www.fft.org.uk/) will collate and upload anonymised data to the UK Data Archive (for the primary outcome measure). This archived data (for the primary outcome measure) will only be available in an anonymised form with restricted access for research purposes only.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Physical Activity

Clinical Trials on Physical Education (PE) Programme

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings