In 2011, the YMCA of the USA adopted activity standards recommending afterschool programs (ASPs) ensure all children engage in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily during the ASP. The way in which ASPs are to accomplish this standard is left to the ASP and few effective strategies exist to achieve this standard. The purpose of this study was to evaluate strategies designed to help ASPs meet the MVPA standard
Method:
Four large-scale YMCA ASPs, serving approximately 500 children each day participated in this single group pre-test with 3 follow-up assessments over 2 years. Community-based participatory development of strategies focused on modification of program schedules, professional development training delivered to afterschool program staff, and weekly checklists to evaluate activity opportunities. Accelerometry-derived MVPA classified as meet or fail-to-meet the 30min/d MVPA standard was the main outcome measure. Data was collected over a minimum of 4 non-consecutive days at baseline (Fall 2011) and the 3 follow-up assessments (Spring 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013).
Analysis/Results:
Random intercept logistic regression models evaluated the probability of meeting the standard for boys and girls, separately. A total of 895 children (5-12yrs, 48.4% girls) representing 3,654 daily measures were collected across the 4 assessments. The percentage of girls and boys meeting the MVPA standard at baseline was 13.3% and 28.0%, respectively. By Spring 2013 this increased to 29.3% and 49.6%. These changes represented an increase in the odds of meeting the 30min MVPA/d standard by 1.5 (95CI 1.1 to 2.0) and 2.4 (95CI 1.2 to 4.8) for girls and boys, respectively.
Conclusions:
The strategies developed herein represent an effective approach to enhancing current practice within YMCA ASPs to achieve existing MVPA standards. Additional work is necessary to identify the cost associated with using the strategies, as well as, evaluating the scalability of the strategies in a larger sample of ASPs.