ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2023
Effect of nationwide school policy on device-measured physical activity in Danish children and adolescents: a natural experiment.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of education outside the classroom to increase adolescent physical activity.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Promoting physical activity at Danish schools targeting youth who are not in employment, education or training (NEET): a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The complexity of promoting physical activity in English state primary schools: an in-depth qualitative analysis of the role of social context.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Associations of screen time and physical activity with suicidality in adolescents: a national cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Monitoring of child-specific activities in ambulatory children with and without developmental disabilities.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Association of digital screen use during recess with physical activity behaviours in 10-year-old to 17-year-old Danish adolescents: a population-based cross-sectional study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Impact of Soft Drink Intake on Bone Development and Risk of Fractures in a Danish Cohort of Schoolchildren.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Impact of a nationwide school policy on body mass index in Danish school children: An interrupted time series analysis.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Physical activity interventions in European primary schools: a scoping review to create a framework for the design of tailored interventions in European countries.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Background: A new Danish school policy with a requirement for 45 min physical activity daily during school hours was introduced in 2014. The objective of this natural experiment was to evaluate the effect of this nationwide school policy on physical activity in Danish children and adolescents. Methods: Four historical studies completed between 2009 and 2012 comprised the pre-policy study population. Post-policy data were collected in 2017/18. All post-policy schools were represented in the four pre-policy studies. Age-groups and seasons were matched. In total, 4816 children and adolescents aged 6-17 were included in the analyses (2346 pre-policy and 2470 post-policy). Children and adolescents were eligible if they had accelerometer measurements and did not have any physical disabilities preventing activity. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry. Main outcome was any bodily movement. Secondary outcomes were moderate to vigorous physical activity and overall movement volume (mean counts per minute). Findings: The school policy interrupted a linear decreasing pre-policy trend in physical activity during school hours. All activity outcomes increased post-policy during a standardized school day (8:10 am-1 pm). Increases were more pronounced in the youngest children. Specifically, we observed a daily increase during a standardized school day in 2017/2018 of 14.2 min of movement (95% CI: 11.4-17.0, p < 0.001), 6.5 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (95% CI: 4.7-8.3, P < 0.001), and 141.8 counts per minute (95% CI: 108.5-175.2, P < 0.001). Interpretation: A national school policy may be an important strategy to increase physical activity during school hours among children and adolescents. Funding: The Danish Foundation TrygFonden has funded the PHASAR project (ID 115606).
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Registered trials
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.