Turn up the HEAT - Healthy Eating and Activity Time in Summer Day Camps (HEPA)

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Childhood Obesity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

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

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1000
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • South Carolina
    • Columbia, South Carolina, United States, 29201
      • University of South Carolina

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Physical Activity Intervention; This arm (10 summer day camps) will receive the Physical Activity intervention the first year and both healthy eating and physical activity the second and thrid years.	Behavioral: Healthy 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.; Other Names: HEPA
Other: Healthy EAting Intervention; This arm (10 summer day camps) will receive the Healthy Eating intervention the first year and both healthy eating and physical activity the second and thrid years.	Behavioral: Healthy 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.; Other Names: HEPA

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in percentage of children meeting 60min of MVPA	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.	Year 1 - Year 4

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in percentage of children bringing/consuming healthy foods/beverages	Trained observers will record the foods/beverages brought/consumed at SDC - snacks and lunches	Year 1 - Year 4

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of South Carolina
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Michael W Beets, PhD, University of South Carolina

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Weaver RG, Brazendale K, Chandler JL, Turner-McGrievy GM, Moore JB, Huberty JL, Ward DS, Beets MW. First year physical activity findings from turn up the HEAT (Healthy Eating and Activity Time) in summer day camps. PLoS One. 2017 Mar 28;12(3):e0173791. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173791. eCollection 2017.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 10, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 11, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): June 12, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 18, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 16, 2020
• Last Verified: November 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: children; childhood obesity; MVPA; Healthy Eating
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro00032881