Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24943472›Full record

Trial reportBMC public health2014

Physical fitness and mental health impact of a sport-for-development intervention in a post-conflict setting: randomised controlled trial nested within an observational study of adolescents in Gulu, Uganda.

Justin Richards, Charlie Foster, Nick Townsend, Adrian Bauman

Open access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC public health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
31citing papers in PubMed, 9 pooled it
2.8field-weighted citation impact, top 9% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

31 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 98 citations in OpenAlex.

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  7. Childhood Obesity Prevention in Africa: A Systematic Review of Intervention Effectiveness and Implementation.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Justin RichardsNuffield Department of Population Health, British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, University of Oxford, Rosemary Rue Building, Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. justin.a.richards@gmail.com.
Charlie Foster
Nick Townsend
Adrian Bauman
British Heart Foundation · GBUniversity of Oxford · GBUniversity of Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPhysical inactivity contributes to poor fitness and mental health disorders. This is of concern in post-conflict low-income settings where non-communicable diseases are emerging and there is limited evidence for physical activity interventions. We examined the effects of a sport-for-development programme on adolescent physical fitness and mental health in Gulu, Uganda.

methodsWe conducted a single-blinded RCT nested within an observational study with three unbalanced parallel groups. Participants were able-bodied adolescents aged 11-14 years. The intervention comprised an 11-week voluntary competitive sport-for-development football league. Participants who did not subscribe for the intervention formed a non-registered comparison group. Boys who registered for the sport-for-development programme were randomly allocated to the intervention or wait-listed. The girls programme subscription was insufficient to form a wait-list and all registrants received the intervention. Physical fitness was assessed by cardiorespiratory fitness (multi-stage fitness test), muscular power (standing broad jump) and body composition (BMI-for-age). Mental health was measured using the Acholi Psychosocial Assessment Instrument for local depression-like (DLS) and anxiety-like (ALS) syndromes. All randomisation was computer generated and assessors were masked to group allocation. An intention-to-treat analysis of adjusted effect size (ES) was applied.

resultsThere were 1,462 adolescents in the study (intervention: boys = 74, girls = 81; wait-list: boys = 72; comparison: boys = 472, girls = 763). At four months follow-up there was no significant effect on the boys fitness when comparing intervention vs wait-listed and intervention vs non-registered groups. However, there was a negative effect on DLS when comparing boys intervention vs wait-listed (ES = 0.67 [0.33 to 1.00]) and intervention vs non-registered (ES = 0.25 [0.00 to 0.49]). Similar results were observed for ALS for boys intervention vs wait-listed (ES = 0.63 [0.30 to 0.96]) and intervention vs non-registered (ES = 0.26 [0.01 to 0.50]). There was no significant effect on the girls for any outcomes.

conclusionsThe sport-for-development league in this study had no impact on fitness and a negative effect on the mental health of participating boys. From this research, there is no evidence that voluntary competitive sport-for-development interventions improve physical fitness or mental health outcomes in post-conflict settings.

Indexed as

Mental HealthPhysical FitnessSportsAdolescentChildCommunity NetworksFemaleHealth PromotionHealth StatusHumansMaleObservational Studies as TopicPoverty AreasUganda

Identifiers

PMID24943472
PMCPMC4079830
OpenAlexW2147657119

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.