Trial reportThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2021
A peer coach intervention in childcare centres enhances early childhood physical activity: The Active Early Learning (AEL) cluster randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of early childhood education and care-based interventions on child physical activity, anthropometrics, fundamental movement skills, cognitive functioning, and social-emotional wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- Which behaviour change techniques are associated with interventions that increase physical activity in pre-school children? A systematic review.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Physical Literacy Interventions: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of a teacher-led social cognitive theory-based multicomponent movement education program on preschoolers' fundamental movement skills and physical activity: the PA-REALITY cluster-randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Trial
- Painted playgrounds for preschoolers' physical activity and fundamental motor skill improvement: a randomized controlled pilot trial of effectiveness.BMC pediatrics · 2023Trial
- Article
- Article
- Piloting the Virtual PLAYshop Program: A Parent-Focused Physical Literacy Intervention for Early Childhood.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Development, explanation, and presentation of the Physical Literacy Interventions Reporting Template (PLIRT).The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Article
- Article
- Relationship between heart rate variability and body mass index: A cross-sectional study of preschool children.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAs numbers of children and time spent in childcare centres increase, so does the potential influence of these centres on early childhood physical activity (PA). However, previous reports indicate little success of interventions aimed at improving PA. The Active Early Learning (AEL) program is a multi-component pragmatic intervention designed to imbed PA into the daily curriculum. Delivered by childcare centre staff, it is directed and supported by a peer coach who works across a network of centres. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of the AEL program on children's PA.
methodsFifteen childcare centres (8 intervention, 7 control centres; 314 children, 180 boys, 4.3y ± 0.4) participated in a 22-week stratified cluster randomised controlled trial. To be eligible to participate, centres needed to have ≥15 preschool children aged 3 to 5-years. The primary outcome was PA measured by accelerometer (Actigraph GT3X) during childcare centre hours over a 3-day period, calculated in min/h of Total PA and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). The effect of the intervention was evaluated using linear mixed models adjusted for age, sex, accelerometer wear time and centre clustering.
resultsThere was an intervention effect for Total PA (+ 4.06 min/h, 95% CI [2.66 to 5.47], p < .001) and MVPA (+ 2.33 min/h, 95% CI [1.31 to 3.34] p < .001). On average, a child taking part in the intervention attending a childcare centre from 8 am to 3 pm performed 28 min more Total PA and 16 min more MVPA per day than children receiving usual practice care.
conclusionIn contrast with the findings of previous pragmatic trials in early childcare centres, this study shows that a peer-coach facilitated program, focussed on integrating PA into the daily childcare routine, can elicit increases in preschool children's PA of practical as well as statistical significance.
trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials registry: ACTRN12619000638134 . Registered 30/04/2019.
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