Intervention Research In Health Promotion: The Challenges of Transferability of a Youth Nutrition Project

Abstract

Abstract Recent evidence reports the efficacy of theory-based interventions to promote physical activity (PA) among population (Gourlan et al., 2015). However, despite those encouraging results reported in the scientific literature, few documents currently exists to help professionals in the health and educational domains to implement theory-based interventions (Marcus & Forsyth, 2009). The “Great Live and Move Challenge” (GLMC) is an intervention based on the tenets of the theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) which aim to promote PA among 7-11 years old French school-aged children and their parents (Cousson-Gélie et al., 2019). Throughout the GLMC, children are asked to quantify their daily PA level by illustrating each 15 minutes of PA achieved with an “energy cube”. The cluster randomised controlled trial showed the effectiveness of GLMC in 3121 children by significantly increasing the proportion of children doing one hour of physical activity per day. During a two-year follow-up, children answered each year a questionnaire measuring TPB constructs and weekly physical activity practice both at pre- and post-intervention. A subsample of 157 children also wore an accelerometer (i.e., Actigraph GT3X+). Results notably show that the intervention had a positive impact on the proportion of children who comply with physical activity guidelines during the two years of follow-up, with an increase each year. The GLMC is now implemented in 7 French departments and reaches over 24,000 children. Based on these results, we would like to propose an adaptation of the GLMC for adults, by adapting this intervention in the professional environment, in order to maintain the community aspect of the project. After the presentation of the project and its transferability in different spaces, an interactive debate will be organised on the challenges of transferability.