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Impact of The Daily Mile on children's physical and mental health, and educational attainment in primary schools: iMprOVE cohort study protocol.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: School-based active mile initiatives such as The Daily Mile (TDM) are widely promoted to address shortfalls in meeting physical activity recommendations. The iMprOVE Study aims to examine the impact of TDM on children's physical and mental health and educational attainment throughout primary school. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: iMprOVE is a longitudinal quasi-experimental cohort study. We will send a survey to all state-funded primary schools in Greater London to identify participation in TDM. The survey responses will be used for non-random allocation to either the intervention group (Daily Mile schools) or to the control group (non-Daily Mile schools). We aim to recruit 3533 year 1 children (aged 5-6 years) from 77 primary schools and follow them up annually until the end of their primary school years. Data collection taking place at baseline (children in school year 1) and each primary school year thereafter includes device-based measures of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and questionnaires to measure mental health (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) and educational attainment (ratings from 'below expected' to 'above expected levels'). The primary outcome is the mean change in MVPA minutes from baseline to year 6 during the school day among the intervention group compared with controls. We will use multilevel linear regression models adjusting for sociodemographic data and participation in TDM. The study is powered to detect a 10% (5.5 min) difference between the intervention and control group which would be considered clinically significant. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics has been approved from Imperial College Research Ethics Committee, reference 20IC6127. Key findings will be disseminated to the public through research networks, social, print and media broadcasts, community engagement opportunities and schools. We will work with policy-makers for direct application and impact of our findings.

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Keywords

community child health, epidemiology, public health, Child, Cohort Studies, Educational Status, Exercise, Humans, Mental Health, School Health Services, Schools

Journal Title

BMJ Open

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2044-6055
2044-6055

Volume Title

11

Publisher

BMJ

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MR/K023187/1)
MRC (MC_UU_00006/5)
Wellcome Trust (087636/Z/08/Z)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/7)
This work is funded by The Daily Mile Foundation supported by INEOS. BR is funded by The Daily Mile Foundation. SS is supported by The Daily Mile Foundation, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR) and the NIHR North West London Applied Research Collaboration (NW London ARC). TV is funded by an NIHR SPHR PhD Studentship (Grant Reference Number PD-SPH-2015-10055). DH is part of the NIHR SPHR and NW London ARC, and supported by the Department for Education (DfE). EvS is supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC) (Grant MC_UU_12015/7). The work by EvS is undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), where funding from Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged (087636/Z/08/Z; ES/G0007462/1; MR/K023187/1).