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Effectiveness of intervention on physical activity of children: systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials with objectively measured outcomes (EarlyBird 54)

BMJ 2012; 345 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e5888 (Published 27 September 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e5888
  1. Brad Metcalf, research fellow and statistician1,
  2. William Henley, professor of medical statistics2,
  3. Terence Wilkin, professor of endocrinology and metabolism1
  1. 1Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Plymouth University Campus, Plymouth, UK
  2. 2Institute of Health Services Research, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter Campus, Exeter, UK
  1. Correspondence to: B Metcalf brad.metcalf{at}nhs.net
  • Accepted 21 August 2012

Abstract

Objective To determine whether, and to what extent, physical activity interventions affect the overall activity levels of children.

Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data sources Electronic databases (Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus) and reference lists of included studies and of relevant review articles.

Study selection Design: randomised controlled trials or controlled clinical trials (cluster and individual) published in peer reviewed journals. Intervention: incorporated a component designed to increase the physical activity of children/adolescents and was at least four weeks in duration. Outcomes: measured whole day physical activity objectively with accelerometers either before or immediately after the end of the intervention period.

Data analysis Intervention effects (standardised mean differences) were calculated for total physical activity, time spent in moderate or vigorous physical activity, or both for each study and pooled using a weighted random effects model. Meta-regression explored the heterogeneity of intervention effects in relation to study participants, design, intervention type, and methodological quality.

Results Thirty studies (involving 14 326 participants; 6153 with accelerometer measured physical activity) met the inclusion criteria and all were eligible for meta-analysis/meta-regression. The pooled intervention effect across all studies was small to negligible for total physical activity (standardised mean difference 0.12, 95% confidence interval 0.04 to 0.20; P<0.01) and small for moderate or vigorous activity (0.16, 0.08 to 0.24; P<0.001). Meta-regression indicated that the pooled intervention effect did not differ significantly between any of the subgroups (for example, for total physical activity, standardised mean differences were 0.07 for age <10 years and 0.16 for ≥10 years, P=0.19; 0.07 for body mass index across the entire range and 0.22 for exclusively overweight/obese children, P=0.07; 0.12 for study duration ≤6 months and 0.09 for >6 months, P=0.71; 0.15 for home/family based intervention and 0.10 for school based intervention, P=0.53; and 0.09 for higher quality studies and 0.14 for lower quality studies, P=0.52).

Conclusions This review provides strong evidence that physical activity interventions have had only a small effect (approximately 4 minutes more walking or running per day) on children’s overall activity levels. This finding may explain, in part, why such interventions have had limited success in reducing the body mass index or body fat of children.

Footnotes

  • Contributors: BM was involved in the design, research, analyses, and writing of this article. WH was involved in the analysis. TW was involved in the design, research, and writing. TW is the guarantor.

  • Funding: EarlyBird (BM and TW) is currently supported by the Bright Future Trust, the Kirby Laing Foundation, the Peninsula Foundation, and the EarlyBird Diabetes Trust. These funding sources had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of results, or the writing of the report. WH was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC). The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.

  • Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

  • Ethical approval: Not needed.

  • Data sharing: No additional data available.

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