Gilliland Jason A, Clark Andrew F, Tucker Patricia, Prapavessis Harry, Avison William, Wilk Piotr
Human Environments Analysis Lab, University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, N6A 5C2, ON, Canada.
Children's Health Research Institute, 800 Commissioners Rd. E., London, N6C 2V5, ON, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2015 Dec 23;15:1286. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2637-x.
Physical activity during childhood is associated with a multitude of physical, behavioural, and psychological health benefits. Identification of effective population level strategies for increasing children's physical activity levels is critical for improving the overall health of Canadians. The overall objective of this study is to assess how a naturally-occurring, community-level intervention which offers Grade 5 children in London, Canada a free access pass to physical activity opportunities (facilities and programs) for an entire school year can lead to increased physical activity among recipients.
METHODS/DESIGN: This study adopts a longitudinal cohort study design to assess the effectiveness of improving children's access to physical activity opportunities for increasing their physical activity levels. To meet our overall objective we have three aims: (1) to assess whether the provision of free access increases children's physical activity levels during and after the intervention compared to a control group; (2) to assess how and why child-specific trajectories of physical activity (between-children differences in level of physical activity measured across time) in the intervention group differ according to children's individual and household characteristics; and (3) to explore additional factors that are unaccounted for in the theoretical model to gain a further understanding of why the free access intervention had varying effects on changing physical activity levels. We will be addressing these aims using a mixed methods approach, including: a series of youth surveys conducted before, during, immediately after, and 4-months after the intervention; parent surveys before, during, and post-intervention; real-time tracking of the access pass use during the intervention; and focus groups at the conclusion of the intervention. Data compiled from the youth surveys will provide a subjective measure of physical activity to be used as our outcome measure to address our primary aims.
The results of this study can inform policy- and decision-makers about the sub-groups of the population that benefitted the most (or least) from the intervention to provide more specific information on how to develop and target future interventions to have a greater impact on the physical activity levels and overall health of children.
儿童时期的身体活动对身体、行为和心理健康有诸多益处。确定有效的群体层面策略以提高儿童的身体活动水平，对于改善加拿大人的整体健康状况至关重要。本研究的总体目标是评估一项自然发生的社区层面干预措施，即向加拿大伦敦市五年级儿童提供一整个学年的体育活动机会（设施和项目）免费通行证，如何能使接受者的身体活动增加。
方法/设计：本研究采用纵向队列研究设计，以评估改善儿童获得体育活动机会对提高其身体活动水平的有效性。为实现总体目标，我们有三个目标：（1）评估与对照组相比，提供免费通行证是否能在干预期间及之后提高儿童的身体活动水平；（2）评估干预组中儿童特定的身体活动轨迹（不同时间测量的儿童间身体活动水平差异）如何以及为何因儿童个体和家庭特征而异；（3）探索理论模型中未考虑的其他因素，以进一步了解为何免费通行证干预对改变身体活动水平有不同影响。我们将采用混合方法来实现这些目标，包括：在干预前、干预期间、干预刚结束后以及干预后4个月进行一系列青少年调查；在干预前、干预期间和干预后进行家长调查；在干预期间实时跟踪通行证使用情况；以及在干预结束时进行焦点小组讨论。从青少年调查中收集的数据将提供身体活动的主观测量值，作为我们的结果测量指标以实现主要目标。
本研究结果可为政策制定者和决策者提供信息，了解哪些人群亚组从干预中受益最多（或最少），从而提供更具体的信息，说明如何制定和针对未来干预措施，以对儿童的身体活动水平和整体健康产生更大影响。
