Activity Breaks for Brain Health in Adolescents (ABBaH teens)

Acute Effects From Prolonged Inactivity and Physical Activity Interventions on Cortical Blood Flow and Arterials Stiffness in School-aged Adolescents.

The main aim for this study is to investigate to what extent physical activity of moderate or low intensity, relative to prolonged inactivity, may acutely alter neural activity-related prefrontal cortex oxygenated hemoglobin during a cognitive demanding task in 13- 15 year-old adolescents. The study is primarily focused on investigating these effects in ecologically valid conditions, i.e. activity patterns that closely resemble a typical day in school and using activity modes that are suitable in a school setting.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy Adolescents
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Prolonged sitting (social breaks); Behavioral: Prolonged sitting with step-up exercise break; Behavioral: Prolonged sitting with simple resistance activity breaks

Detailed Description

The study will be a controlled crossover experimental trial with three conditions. Each participant will complete each of the three experimental conditions, separated by a washout period of minimum four days. Physical activity behaviours and sleep will be monitored the day/night before each test day. The first visit will be a familiarization session for the collection of demographic data, fitness testing, and acquaintance with experimental procedures. On the second, third, and fourth visits, participants will undergo three different standardized 80-minutes interventions in a randomized order. Before and immediately after the 80-minutes interventions, blood pressure, augmentation index, and cerebral hemodynamic response of the prefrontal cortex during standardized cognitive tasks (nback test) will be measured. Additionally, saliva samples will be collected the morning of the test day, and before and after the interventions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 17
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Sweden
  • Stockholm, Sweden, 114 86
    • The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH)

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Exclusion Criteria:

• Ongoing medication that can affect central circulation or brain circulation
• Ongoing infection
• Inability to apprehend information about the study or to perform the tests

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Prolonged sitting (social breaks)	Behavioral: Prolonged sitting (social breaks); Participants are required to sit for 80 minutes doing schoolwork, with a toilet break in between. Every twenty minutes participants will have a short social break. Test day begins at 8:00 with pretest measures, followed by the intervention at about 9:00, which will end around 12:00, with subsequent posttest measures.
Experimental: Prolonged sitting with step-up exercise break	Behavioral: Prolonged sitting with step-up exercise break; Participants are required to sit for 80 minutes doing schoolwork, with a toilet break in between. Every twenty minutes participants will have a physical activity break, where they will perform a simple moderate-intensity step-up exercise for three minutes at a predetermined pace. Test day begins at 8:00 with pretest measures, followed by the intervention at about 9:30, which will end around 12:00, with subsequent posttest measures.
Experimental: Prolonged sitting with simple resistance activity breaks	Behavioral: Prolonged sitting with simple resistance activity breaks; Participants are required to sit for 80 minutes doing schoolwork, with a toilet break in between. Every twenty minutes participants will have a physical activity break, where they will perform simple resistance activities following a video for about three minutes. Test day begins at 8:00 with pretest measures, followed by the intervention at about 9:30, which will end around 12:00, with subsequent posttest measures.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in cerebral blood flow	Oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy	before to after 80 minutes intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Cognitive performance	nback cognitive test (time and accuracy)	before and after 80 minutes intervention
Augmentation index	measure of arterial stiffness	before and after 80 minutes intervention
Cortisol	measured from saliva	morning; before and after 80 minutes intervention
Mood	Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) comprised of 20 affect states (10 positive and 10 negative), each affect state scored on a scale going from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely)	at the beginning of the day; before and after 80 minutes intervention
Sleepiness	Karolinska Sleepiness Questionnaire; goes from 1 (extremely alert) to 9 (extremely sleepy)	at the beginning of the day; before and after 80 minutes intervention
Alertness	100mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS); range: 'not at all' to 'completely alert'	at the beginning of the day; before and after 80 minutes intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences
• Collaborators: The Knowledge Foundation; IKEA; Skandia; Konsumentföreningen Stockholm; Generation PEP; COOP
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Örjan Ekblom, PhD, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Heiland EG, Kjellenberg K, Tarassova O, Fernstrom M, Nyberg G, Ekblom MM, Helgadottir B, Ekblom O. ABBaH teens: Activity Breaks for Brain Health in adolescents: study protocol for a randomized crossover trial. Trials. 2022 Jan 6;23(1):22. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05972-5.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 17, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 16, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): December 16, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 10, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 10, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): September 17, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 24, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 23, 2021
• Last Verified: February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: Dnr 2020-02597

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