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Abstract
Background: Most primary school Physical Education (PE) has relatively little health-enhancing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). - A promising theory and evidence-based intervention, the ‘SHARP Principles’ model, has been effective in making PE lessons more active in one area of England. This protocol paper explains the rationale for use of the SHARP intervention, and the methods used to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a version of SHARP translated for use in Scotland (SHARP Scotland). Methods: The feasibility of SHARP Scotland will be evaluated by key areas of focus for feasibility studies: Acceptability, Implementation, Integration, Limited Efficacy Testing. A combination of process measures, including observations, session delivery records, accelerometry-data collection, questionnaires, and semi-structured qualitative focus groups with teachers and pupils will be used. The feasibility and suitability of the SHARP Scotland intervention for a future Randomised Control Trial (RCT) will be assessed. The study will involve children from 8-11 years old (Primary 4 to 6) in two schools, one large urban school, and one smaller school; four classes will be randomly assigned to the intervention group, and four classes randomly assigned to the usual-care (standard curriculum) control group. Within the 8-week intervention, MVPA in the intervention group will be targeted by encouraging class teachers to deliver their PE classes in more active ways, following SHARP Principles. A maximum of 64 PE lessons delivered in a SHARP way will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. Discussion: The outcome of this study will be an assessment of whether applying the SHARP intervention is feasible in Scottish schools. Identification of any modifications to the intervention or evaluation which are required will provide insight for a fully powered effectiveness trial in the future, if appropriate.
Highlights
Moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) is very important to the health and well-being of children as it provides both immediate and long-term health and non-health benefits.[1–4] Despite these positive impacts, it is estimated that approximately only 20% of children and adolescents globally meet the previous WHO recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day every day.[5]
We propose this study as the foundation of future research which tests whether the SHARP Principles’ model (SHARP)-Scotland intervention works or not, and how it might be implemented across various parts of Scotland to increase MVPA during Physical Education (PE), and in turn increase overall MVPA
While concerns about insufficient MVPA in childhood have focused on the impact on their physical and mental health, low MVPA impairs cognitive function and academic attainment in children.[1,35]
Summary
While concerns about insufficient MVPA in childhood have focused on the impact on their physical and mental health, low MVPA impairs cognitive function and academic attainment in children.[1,35] Only a small proportion of Scottish children are achieving the recommended minimum of 60 minutes of MVPA daily[36,37] and so a simple school-based intervention could provide an effective measure in childhood for increasing MVPA. Strengths and limitations of this study There are some strengths to this study It is a translation of a previously successful intervention (SHARP Principles Model) to be used in another setting (SHARP Scotland) and the feasibility testing is a low-cost, culturally relevant schoolbased intervention with great public health potential.[21,26]. Both quantitative (accelerometry data; process evaluation logs; recruitment data) and qualitative (interviews/focus groups) approaches are utilised to test feasibility in the present study, so the data are complementary and can be triangulated. Since the feasibility study may be carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, an unstable education environment might cause research delays and modifications may be required to the proposed intervention or feasibility evaluation
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