FIFA 11 for Health in Europe

Proposed action: To investigate the effect of an innovative and easily implementable football-based health education programme on well-being, self-esteem, health knowledge and physical fitness for 10-12-year old school children. The programme has been running in 22 countries in Africa and South America and is now being adapted to the Western World. The first step was to run a pilot implementation for more than 600 school children in Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Roskilde and Frederikssund in the school year 2015-2016. From august 2016 to a nationwide implementation for 30,000 school children is started in Denmark and The Faroe Islands.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: FIFA 11 for health

Detailed Description

Proposed action: To investigate the effect of an innovative and easily implementable football-based health education programme on well-being, self-esteem, health knowledge and physical fitness for 10-12-year old school children. The programme has been running in 22 countries in Africa and South America and is now being adapted to the Western World. The first step was to run a pilot implementation for more than 600 school children in Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Roskilde and Frederikssund in the school year 2015-2016. From august 2016 to a nationwide implementation for 30,000 school children is started in Denmark and The Faroe Islands. The programme is developed and implemented in a close collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark, University of Copenhagen, The Danish Football Association and the international football association FIFA, and the ambitious scope of the project is to continue this collaboration in a large-scale implementation involving up to 1 million children in up to 30 Western Countries.

As in Africa and South America FIFA is providing all equipment for the programme, including footballs, cones, bibs, training manuals etc. FIFA and the Danish FA have employed a co-funded national project leader in Denmark for a 3-year period, starting August 2015.

The University of Southern Denmark and the Danish FA is responsible for the training manuals, coaching courses for school teachers and the research related the nationwide implementation.

Main project activities: The FIFA 11 for Health in Denmark programme is being delivered 30,000 school children aged 10-12 (5th grade pupils) in the nationwide implementation phase. The programme is being delivered by two school teachers (one female and one male teacher) in each of the schools, and includes two weekly 45-min sessions per week over an 11-week period. The football-based health education programme incorporates fun, joyful and social small-sided games and pair-exercises along with specific focus on one important health message in week. Girls and boys will play together, and the exercises are conducted so that all the children will have a high involvement, success rate and intensity, also the unfit, obese, and non-sport club active. At the same time the exercises are constructed with special focus on how to be a good friend and a team player, how to demonstrate empathy and skill in helping others both individually and as a group, and how to avoid bullying and how to think positively. The 11 health messages cover the most important and prominent health challenges of the Western World, including importance social wellbeing, mental health, physical activity, diet, hygiene and risk-behavior such as abuse of alcohol and drugs.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 20000
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Odense, Denmark, 5000
    • University of Southern Denmark

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 5 years to 8 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy

Exclusion Criteria:

• Disabilities

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention	Other: FIFA 11 for health
No Intervention: Control

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Health Knowledge	questionnaire	up to 2 yrs

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fitness	physical testing	up to 2 yrs
Well-being	questionnaire	up to 2 yrs
Cognitive function	Cogstate test battery	up to 2 yrs

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern Denmark

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 30, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): December 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 23, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 10, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): January 12, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 13, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2022
• Last Verified: December 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: FIFA11fh

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No