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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2006 Nov 18;333(7577):1041.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.38979.623773.55. Epub 2006 Oct 6.

Physical activity to prevent obesity in young children: cluster randomised controlled trial

John J Reilly  1 , Louise Kelly, Colette Montgomery, Avril Williamson, Abigail Fisher, John H McColl, Rossella Lo Conte, James Y Paton, Stanley Grant
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Physical activity to prevent obesity in young children: cluster randomised controlled trial

John J Reilly et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether a physical activity intervention reduces body mass index in young children.

Design: Cluster randomised controlled single blinded trial over 12 months.

Setting: Thirty six nurseries in Glasgow, Scotland.

Participants: 545 children in their preschool year, mean age 4.2 years (SD 0.2) at baseline.

Intervention: Enhanced physical activity programme in nursery (three 30 minute sessions a week over 24 weeks) plus home based health education aimed at increasing physical activity through play and reducing sedentary behaviour.

Main outcome measure: Body mass index, expressed as a standard deviation score relative to UK 1990 reference data. Secondary measures were objectively measured physical activity and sedentary behaviour; fundamental movement skills; and evaluation of the process.

Results: Group allocation had no significant effect on the primary outcome measure at six and 12 months or on measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviour by accelerometry. Children in the intervention group had significantly higher performance in movement skills tests than control children at six month follow-up (P=0.0027; 95% confidence interval 0.3 to 1.3) after adjustment for sex and baseline performance.

Conclusions: Physical activity can significantly improve motor skills but did not reduce body mass index in young children in this trial.

Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN36363490.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Ethical approval: Yorkhill Hospitals research ethics committee approved the research.

Figures

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Fig 1 Flow of nurseries though study (study cluster)
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Fig 2 Flow of individual participants through study with primary outcome measure (body mass index (BMI))
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Reilly JJ, Dorosty AR. Epidemic of obesity in UK children. Lancet 1999;354:1874-5. - PubMed
    1. Reilly JJ, Kelnar CJ, Alexander DW, Hacking B, McDowell ZC, Stewart ML, Methven E. Health consequences of obesity: systematic review and critical appraisal. Arch Dis Child 2003;88:748-52. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Summerbell CD, Waters E, Edmunds LD, Brown T, Campbell KJ. Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Library 2006;(3)CD001871. - PubMed
    1. Reilly JJ, Wilson M, Summerbell C, Wilson D. Obesity diagnosis, prevention, and treatment: evidence-based answers to common questions. Arch Dis Child 2002;86:312-95. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sahota P, Rudolf MCJ, Dixey R, Hill AJ, Barth JH, Cade J. Randomised controlled trial of primary school-based intervention to reduce risk factors for obesity. BMJ 2001;323:1029-32. - PMC - PubMed

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