A Participatory Parental Intervention Promoting Physical Activity in Preschools

May 9, 2023 updated by: Joachim E. Fischer, MD MSc, Universitätsmedizin Mannheim
The aim of this study is to test whether a parent-focused participatory intervention in addition to gym lessons can enhance preschoolers physical activity compared to gym lessons alone.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Over the last 20 years, physical activity (PA) in children has rapidly decreased in both developed and developing nations. More effective interventions to prevent inactivity in childhood thus are urgently needed. The preschool years, including the adiposity rebound period, might represent a good window of opportunity. Study literature suggests that targeting parents is crucial for lasting changes in young childrens' behavior. However, it is not known which methods are effective for involving parents in physical activity promotion. Consistent with experience from community-based participatory research, encouraging parents to participate the intervention in terms of content and structure might lead to higher intervention effectivity and sustainability. In our study, we therefore "enriched" a child-centered physical activity intervention in preschools (twice weekly gym lessons over 6 months) with a parent-focused participatory community intervention component.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1047

Phase

  • 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

  • Germany
    • Baden-Württemberg
      • Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 68167
        • Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg 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

Ages Eligible for Study

3 years to 6 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • age 3-6 years

Exclusion Criteria:

  • severe atopic dermatitis,
  • serious acute infectious diseases,
  • physical malformations, and
  • severe physical disabilities.

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: parent intervention plus gym lessons
Parent-focused participatory preschool intervention in addition to twice weekly gym lessons over 6 months. The participatory intervention includes parents, teachers and children.
Behavioral: parent-focused intervention
The core of the parent-focused intervention is a menu of 15 easy to realize project ideas to promote the everyday physical activity of children and families. The 15 ideas are presented to the parents and teachers via a webpage, a printed book and a film. During a face-to-face meeting, parents and teachers are guided into discussions of their own preschool environment's and community's physical activity shortcomings and encouraged to generate their own ideas of how to enhance the physical activity of their families and preschools. Over the course of three structured follow-up meetings, parents and teachers are instructed to choose maximally 3 to 4 ideas from either the menu or the network's own ideas, and then are empowered to realize and implement them together.
Other Names:
  • Ene mene fit - Eltern machen mit
Behavioral: twice weekly gym lessons
twice weekly one-hour gym lessons delivered by a specially trained external physical education teacher over 6 months
Other Names:
  • child-centered physical activity intervention
Active Comparator: gym lessons only
Twice weekly one-hour gym lessons delivered by a specially trained external physical education teacher over 6 months
Behavioral: twice weekly gym lessons
twice weekly one-hour gym lessons delivered by a specially trained external physical education teacher over 6 months
Other Names:
  • child-centered physical activity intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Absolute change in mean accelerometry counts over 6 days
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention, six months after end of intervention
baseline, end of intervention, six months after end of intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Body Mass Index
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention, six months after end of intervention
baseline, end of intervention, six months after end of intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Universitätsmedizin Mannheim

Collaborators

Baden-Württemberg Stiftung gGmbH

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Joachim E. Fischer, MD, M.Sc., Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg 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

Helpful Links

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

September 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 30, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 30, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

October 1, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 11, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 9, 2023

Last Verified

May 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MIPH_KITA2008

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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