Abstract
BackgroundMany children spend too much time screen-viewing (watching TV, surfing the internet and playing video games) and do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines. Parents are important influences on children’s PA and screen-viewing (SV). There is a shortage of parent-focused interventions to change children’s PA and SV.MethodsTeamplay was a two arm individualized randomized controlled feasibility trial. Participants were parents of 6–8 year old children. Intervention participants were invited to attend an eight week parenting program with each session lasting 2 hours. Children and parents wore an accelerometer for seven days and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) were derived. Parents were also asked to report the average number of hours per day that both they and the target child spent watching TV. Measures were assessed at baseline (time 0) at the end of the intervention (week 8) and 2 months after the intervention had ended (week 16).ResultsThere were 75 participants who provided consent and were randomized but 27 participants withdrew post-randomization. Children in the intervention group engaged in 2.6 fewer minutes of weekday MVPA at Time 1 but engaged in 11 more minutes of weekend MVPA. At Time 1 the intervention parents engaged in 9 more minutes of weekday MVPA and 13 more minutes of weekend MVPA. The proportion of children in the intervention group watching ≥ 2 hours per day of TV on weekend days decreased after the intervention (time 0 = 76%, time 1 = 39%, time 2 = 50%), while the control group proportion increased slightly (79%, 86% and 87%). Parental weekday TV watching decreased in both groups. In post-study interviews many mothers reported problems associated with wearing the accelerometers. In terms of a future full-scale trial, a sample of between 80 and 340 families would be needed to detect a mean difference of 10-minutes of weekend MVPA.ConclusionsTeamplay is a promising parenting program in an under-researched area. The intervention was acceptable to parents, and all elements of the study protocol were successfully completed. Simple changes to the trial protocol could result in more complete data collection and study engagement.
Highlights
Introduction toTeamplay Introduce parents to the Teamplay course and create a safe, enjoyable and respectful environmentPA: What is it & why is it important? Help parents to identify/understand the benefits of PAPhysical activity recommendations Help parents to develop an understanding of what physical activity is
25 participants allocated to the intervention group and 23 allocated to the control group provided baseline data
Some data were provided by 23 intervention and 15 control group participants at first follow up, and by 22 intervention and 11 control group participants at the second follow-up
Summary
Many children spend too much time screen-viewing (watching TV, surfing the internet and playing video games) and do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines. Screenviewing (SV), (e.g., watching television, playing video games and surfing the internet), is associated with an increased risk of heart disease [5] and obesity [3]. A number of systematic reviews have indicated that currently there are only a limited number of effective interventions to change children’s physical activity [11] or prevent obesity via increased PA [12,13,14,15] highlighting a need for new, more effective approaches.
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