The StepSmart Project: A Pedometer Based Phased Intervention to Encourage Physical Activity in Schools

A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Pedometer Based Phased Intervention to Encourage Physical Activity in Schools: A Feasibility Study.

A school based pedometer competition among Year 9 pupils (12 - 14 years old) to promote physical activity (PA).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Physical Activity; Health Behavior; Incentives; Competitive Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: The StepSmart Challenge

Detailed Description

The intervention is separated into three main phases.

Phase One: A 10-week school competition using pedometers and a range of non-financial incentives e.g. t-shirts, pens, badges etc. (April - June 2015).

Phase Two: End of school competition but participants will still keep the pedometers. We will set them various challenges over the summer to keep active (July - Oct 2015).

Phase Three: Removal of all extrinsically motivation factors. Focus on PA maintenance.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 240
• Phase: Phase 1

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria

• aged 12-14 years
• enrolled in participating school

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to give informed consent
• Presence of an underlying medical conditions
• Already enrolled in a physical activity intervention

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; The intervention group includes 150 participants aged 12-14 across three schools. Each participant has been given a Fitbit Zip pedometer to wear for a six month period and enrolled on the StepSmart challenge. Participants within the intervention group will take part in two competitions during this period.; School and team based competition. 27/05/15 - 22/06/15 (8 weeks); Individually focused competition. 22/06/15 - 26/10/15 (18 weeks) Prizes of low monetary value will be given to participants based on competition performance	Behavioral: The StepSmart Challenge; A six month pedometer based intervention designed to increase Physical Activity in school children
No Intervention: Control; The control group for the study involves approximately 90 participants aged 12 - 14. across two schools. Participants within the control group will complete the same measures as the intervention group including wearing an actigraph GT3X accelerometer for a seven day period and completing all questionnaires at the same time points as the intervention group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from baseline in physical activity as assessed by Actigraph accelerometer	Actigraph accelerometer counts per minute and minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity	Baseline, 6 months and 1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in mental wellbeing measured by the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale	Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale is a validated, self-report instrument assessing mental wellbeing. Possible scores range from range from 14-70, with higher scores indicating higher mental well-being	Baseline, 6 months and 1 year
Change in social support for physical activity measured by the social support for physical activity scale	Social support for physical activity scale is a validated 5-item scale. Social support is measured as tghe sum of responses to four sub-scales including parental social support (3 items), parental encouragement (2 items), peer support (3 items), and teacher support (3 items). Each question is answered with a 4-point response format ranging from 1 (hardly ever or never) to 4 (every day).	Baseline, 6 months and 1 year
Change in future orientation and impulsivity measured using 8-item time preference scale	A previously validated 8-item time preference scale is included. Responses are summed to obtain a a future orientation and impulsivity score. High scores reflect future time orientation and greater impulsivity in decision making.	Baseline, 6 months and 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Queen's University, Belfast
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mark A Tully, PhD, Queen's University, Belfast

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Corepal R, Best P, O'Neill R, Kee F, Badham J, Dunne L, Miller S, Connolly P, Cupples ME, van Sluijs EMF, Tully MA, Hunter RF. A feasibility study of 'The StepSmart Challenge' to promote physical activity in adolescents. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2019 Nov 17;5:132. doi: 10.1186/s40814-019-0523-5. eCollection 2019.
• Corepal R, Best P, O'Neill R, Tully MA, Edwards M, Jago R, Miller SJ, Kee F, Hunter RF. Exploring the use of a gamified intervention for encouraging physical activity in adolescents: a qualitative longitudinal study in Northern Ireland. BMJ Open. 2018 Apr 20;8(4):e019663. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019663.
• Best P, Badham J, Corepal R, O'Neill RF, Tully MA, Kee F, Hunter RF. Network methods to support user involvement in qualitative data analyses: an introduction to Participatory Theme Elicitation. Trials. 2017 Nov 23;18(1):559. doi: 10.1186/s13063-017-2289-5.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 21, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 25, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): May 28, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 17, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 14, 2017
• Last Verified: August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: StepSmart