Fit for Life Boy Scout badge: Outcome evaluation of a troop and Internet intervention
Introduction
Physical activity has been associated with a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (Sesso et al., 2000), type 2 diabetes (Kriska et al., 2003), obesity (Patrick et al., 2004) and some cancers (Lagerros et al., 2004, Slattery et al., 2003). The low physical activity levels of US adolescents (Jago et al., 2005a) suggest that interventions are needed. Community organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America have been identified as locations for increasing adolescent physical activity (Jago and Baranowski, 2004). A previous intervention focused on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption with Boy Scouts (Baranowski et al., 2002). Although the study resulted in increased fruit and vegetable consumption, the intervention sessions lasted an hour each week for 9 weeks, which limited troop leader enthusiasm (Baranowski et al., 2002). The aim of this study was to assess both the immediate and longer-term (6 month) effect of a Boy-Scout-based physical activity intervention using limited troop time and an Internet program targeting physical activity self-efficacy and preference change.
Section snippets
Participants and study design
Participants were 473 10- to 14-year-old Boy Scouts recruited from 42 troops within the greater Houston area. The study was conducted in two waves that started in spring (16 troops) or fall (26 troops) of 2003. The study was a randomized trial with troops assigned to intervention or control conditions after baseline data collection. Results are reported in accordance with the CONSORT statement (Moher et al., 2001). The intervention group participated in a physical activity intervention, while
Results
Participant characteristics are shown in Table 2. Participants were 13 years of age and predominantly Anglo-American. Parental education was significantly (P = 0.007) associated with intervention group and wave, with more participants living in households in which there was either a college or postgraduate educated adult in the fall than the spring and more in the control group than the intervention group.
Fig. 1 shows the flow of participants throughout the study and how the enrollment
Discussion
The Fit for Life Boy Scout badge intervention resulted in increased light intensity physical activity and a trend towards deceased sedentary behavior among spring participants. As there was no significant change among fall intervention participants, the results suggest a seasonal effect. This is consistent with previously reported seasonality in children's physical activity (Baranowski et al., 1993). The mean daytime temperature highs in Houston in May and November 2003 (when Post#1 data were
Conclusion
Participation in the Fit for Life Boy Scout badge program resulted in a 12-min increase in light intensity physical activity and a trend toward a 12-min decrease in sedentary behavior in a season conducive to increased physical activity but had no effect on the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity. More work is needed to find ways to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity and prevent weight gain among boys of this age.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded in part by a grant from the American Cancer Society, ACS TURSG-01. This work is also a publication of the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas. This project has been funded in part by federal funds from the USDA/ARS under co-operative agreement 58-6250-6001. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the USDA nor mention of
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