Living Green and Healthy for Teens (LiGHT)

March 24, 2025 updated by: Population Health Research Institute

Living Green and Healthy for Teens (LiGHT) - a Randomized Trial Evaluating Behaviour Change Using a Gamified Healthy Living App for Youth and Their Families

This is a two-group parallel randomized controlled trial testing whether a gamified healthy living smartphone app for youth aged 10-16 representative of the Canadian population and one of their parents is more effective at improving a composite of health behaviours (diet, physical activity, sleep and screen time) than a simple app providing links to healthy living websites.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Active, not recruiting

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

Living Green and Healthy for Teens (LiGHT) is a Canadian smartphone app-based program that combines health promotion (healthy eating, active living, screen time and sleep) with additional novel motivators such as environmental stewardship (e.g. reduce prepackaged foods, walk rather than drive) and cost-savings (e.g., eat at home rather than restaurants), that may further increase the likelihood of behaviour change.

The primary aim of the trial is to determine, among youth aged 10-16 years, if randomization of their family to the use of the interactive gamified Living Green and Healthy for Teens (LiGHT) app over a 6 month period, compared to a control app, increases the number of healthy active living behaviours engaged in by youth. Additional outcomes will include youth anthropometrics, diet quality, fitness, quality of life, and parental health behaviours and cardiovascular risk.

Using a multi-centre randomized, parallel, controlled single-blind design, 376 eligible youth-parent dyads stratified by youth (gender, and age <13.5/≥13.5y) will be allocated 1:1 to receive intervention or control apps that provide information and tips on healthy eating and activity in different ways. Participants will be followed for 1 year, with the primary outcome assessed at 6 months.

Participants will be recruited from the community in Hamilton, Ontario, and Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. The target population is the general population of youth and their families. Therefore, entry criteria will be broad. Youth aged 10-16 years of age who identify a need or potential to improve health behaviours will be included if one parent is willing to attend all study visits and use the app, there is at least one internet enabled device in the household, and there are no contraindications to healthy eating and activity, and no family member is participating in a weight management program or other clinical trial.

Participants will be blinded to treatment group. Both apps have appealing interfaces, and both provide information, tips and interactivity (though to different degrees). Every effort will be made to keep research staff who help participants with the app separate from staff who collect data, and the latter will be trained to avoid discussing the intervention.

Evaluations at baseline, 3 months and 6 months by virtual or in-person appointments will include a youth questionnaire including questions about food intake , screen time, physical activity, health related quality of life, and resilience, and measurement of height, weight, and fitness using a push-up test and standing long jump test. Participants completing in-person visits will also complete the following: body fat percentage using bioelectrical impedance assessment, blood pressure, hand grip strength using a dynamometer, and cardiorespiratory fitness using a step test. Youth participants will also provide a urine sample and wear an accelerometer for 7 days. Parents will complete a questionnaire including questions about sociodemographics, their own food intake, screentime, physical activity, parental role modelling and logistic support. Parents will also complete the non-laboratory based INTERHEART risk score questionnaire and have their waist and hip circumference measured. Participants and parents will complete questionnaires about youth experience of online bullying and access to undesirable online content. 12 months after randomization, participants and parents may be invited to complete the same study questionnaires online.

This trial will demonstrate whether use of a rigorously-designed, evidence-based, user-friendly app is able to help families with teenagers improve health behaviours of youth and have any early impact on CV risk factors. Conducting an RCT in the context of the full range of youth in the community has the potential to inform population-scale implementation as a public health tool for sustainable obesity prevention across Canada.

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.
74

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 Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.
  • Name: LiGHT Trial study coordinator
  • Phone Number: 40346 905-527-4322
  • Email: light@phri.ca

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
        • Hamilton Health Sciences

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

10 years to 16 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Living in a home setting with at least one smartphone or tablet and internet access in the household, and
  2. One parent or guardian (the "primary parent") who is able to attend all study visits.
  3. Youth or parent identifying a need or potential to improve health behaviours

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Inability of the youth and/or primary parent to read English at a grade 5 level
  2. A health condition in the youth that precludes eating a variety of foods or engaging in physical activity
  3. Current participation of any family member in a weight management program
  4. Current participation in another clinical trial
  5. Current or prior participation of another member of the household/family in this trial

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

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.
Experimental: Aim2Be
Youth-parent dyads randomized to Aim2Be
Behavioral: Aim2Be smartphone app system
Youth-parent dyads will receive the LiGHT program (addressing healthy eating, physical activity, screen time and sleep) via the Aim2Be smartphone app for 6 months. It provides personalization beginning with creation of an avatar and identifying user motivations, offers progressive goal-setting considering readiness, sub-tasks, milestones, self-monitoring tools with feedback and positive reinforcement. It applies behaviour change techniques, provides a knowledge centre, simulation narratives to enable decision making, and separate social exchange platforms for parents and youth to share ideas and challenges with peers. A Virtual Coach has been programmed using motivational interviewing theory. Gamification includes elements of choice, challenge, uncertainty, discovery, and kudos for achieving outcomes in the process of developing motivations, skills and mastery.
Active Comparator: BnLt
Youth-parent dyads randomized to BnLt
Behavioral: BnLt smartphone app
Youth-parent dyads will receive a simple app called BnLt for 6 months. It provides web-links to external websites that provide information and tips on healthy eating and activity, including the Canada Food Guide, Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology recommendations for physical activity, screen time and sleep for youth, and other resources.

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
Healthy living behaviours
Time Frame: 6 months
Number of behaviours engaged in by youth of the following 7 behaviours: a) ≥60 minutes of MVPA daily, b) ≤2 hours of recreational screen time daily, c) 9-11 hours (for those ≤13 years) and 8-10 hours (for those ≥14 years) of nightly sleep, d) ≥5 fruit and vegetable servings per day, e) ≤2 sugary beverages per week, f) breakfast consumption 7 days per week, and g) eating out or ordering in <1 time per week.
6 months

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
BMI Z-score
Time Frame: 6 months
Age, and sex specific body mass index Z-scores based on WHO norms
6 months
MVPA
Time Frame: 6 months, 1 year
Average daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity measured by accelerometry over 1 week
6 months, 1 year
Diet quality biomarker
Time Frame: 6 months
Diet quality assessed by urine sodium-to-potassium concentration ratio
6 months

Other Outcome Measures

Other Outcome Measures

For clinical trials, a planned measurement described in the protocol that is used to determine the effect of an intervention/treatment on participants. For observational studies, a measurement or observation that is used to describe patterns of diseases or traits, or associations with exposures, risk factors, or treatment. Types of outcome measures include primary outcome measure and secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in number of health behaviours
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Change from baseline in the number of the 7 measured health behaviours over time
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Cardiorespiratory fitness
Time Frame: 6 months
The modified Canadian Aerobic Fitness Test step test (Score range 0-4 with higher scores indicating better fitness)
6 months
Health related quality of life
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Kidscreen-27 Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents - Total Score and Subscales(Physical Well-Being, Psychological Well-Being, Autonomy & Parents, Peers & Social Support, and School Environment) - Total and subscales transformed to T scores with mean 50 and standard deviation 10 with higher scores indicating better quality of life
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) is a questionnaire assessing the resources (individual, relational, communal and cultural) available to individuals that may bolster their resilience. (Score range 12-36 with higher scores indicating better resilience)
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Parental support of healthy eating and physical activity
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Survey questions to asses parental role-modelling and logistic support of their youth's eating and activity behaviours
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Changes in parental diet
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Changes in parental mean frequency of intake of fruits & vegetables, sugary drinks, eating breakfast and restaurant meals from baseline
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Changes in parental physical activity
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Changes in parental metabolic equivalent-minutes (MET-mins) from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (Score range 0-19278, with higher scores indicating greater physical activity)
6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Parental cardiovascular risk
Time Frame: 6 months, (1 year exploratory)
Parental non-laboratory based Interheart modifiable cardiovascular risk score, including questions about diabetes, hypertension, smoking, stress, family history, diet and physical activity (Score range 0-48, with higher scores indicating greater cardiovascular risk)
6 months, (1 year exploratory)

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.
Population Health Research Institute

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 British Columbia
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Childhood Obesity Foundation
Ayogo Health Inc.

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: Zubin Punthakee, MD, MSc, Population Health Research Institute

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.
December 11, 2021

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.
September 30, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

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.
December 31, 2025

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).
June 19, 2019

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.
June 20, 2019

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.
June 24, 2019

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.
March 27, 2025

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.
March 24, 2025

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.
March 1, 2025

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.
  • LiGHT

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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.

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