Role of Structured Days on Weight Gain

NCT ID: NCT03397940

Last Updated: 2022-05-05

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 2279 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-03-01
• Study Completion Date: 2021-10-01

Brief Summary

Summer vacation is a 3-month window of vulnerability for children from low-income households when health behaviors and academic learning decay. The goal of this project is to collect information on where low-income children go during summer, what they do when they get there, and how their behaviors (physical activity, sedentary, sleep, and diet) differ between the summer (unstructured days) and school year (structured days). This study is 1) significant because it will provide evidence on potential points of intervention that can reduce or reverse the excessive unhealthy weight gains that occur during summer and 2) innovative because it will be the first to identify changes in activity, sedentary, sleep, and dietary behaviors during prolonged and shorter periodic breaks from school and link these behaviors to changes in zBMI over time.

Detailed Description

For children (5-12yrs) from low-income households, summer vacation is a "window of vulnerability" and represents an extended period of time (typically 9-10 weeks) in which declines in academic performance occur. For 30 years, empirical evidence has indicated that children from low-income households experience greater declines in reading and math skills during the summer vacation than their middle-to-upper income peers. Additionally, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that the amount of weight gained during summer vacation is 3-5 times greater than the amount of weight gained during the school year. Moreover, this excessive weight gain during summer is more pronounced for low-income, minority children, the same children experiencing the greatest summer learning loss. What children eat and drink, the types of physical activity opportunities, and the amount of screen-time and sleep (two important correlates of weight gain) they engage in during summer vacation is unknown. However, a substantial body of literature indicates that children engage in a greater number of obesogenic behaviors during less-structured times (e.g., weekend days) compared to more-structured times (e.g., week/school days). This phenomenon is refered to as the Structured Days Hypothesis. These behaviors include 1) increased time spent sedentary, 2) reduced engagement in physical activity, 3) displaced sleep patterns, and 4) unhealthy dietary patterns. This study hypothesizes that summer vacation is simply one long weekend where the effect of children's obesogenic behaviors on weight are compounded over a three month time period. However, should children be involved in a structured program over the summer they would not engage in obesogenic behaviors and they would not experience unhealthy weight gains and fitness loss. Recently, one school district in the Columbia, SC area adopted a year-round calendar for an elementary school. This provides a unique opportunity to conduct a natural experiment examining the effects of shorter periodic breaks vs. one prolonged break from structured days (i.e., school days) on the obesogenic behaviors, weight gain, and fitness. This study will use a two arm accelerated longitudinal cohort design to complete the following specific aims: Aim 1: Compare changes in BMI z-scores and fitness during the traditional 3-month summer and 9-month school year between children attending a school that follows a year-round school calendar to children attending match-paired schools that follow a traditional school calendar. Aim 2: Compare changes in sleep, physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and diet during the traditional 3-month summer and 9-month school year between children attending a school that follows a year-round school calendar to children attending match-paired schools that follow a traditional school calendar. This study is significant because the reason for children's weight gain and fitness loss during the summer is unknown. This study is innovative because no studies have examined the effects of prolonged (9 weeks all at once) vs. periodic breaks (3 week breaks distributed throughout the year) from a structured environment on children's weight and fitness.

Conditions

Body Weight; Cardio-respiratory Fitness; Sleep; Nutrition Poor; Physical Activity; Screen Time

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: COHORT
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Year Round School

Children attending year round school

No interventions assigned to this group

Traditional School

Children attending a traditional school with a traditional calendar school year

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students without any physical and/or medical conditions that would limit their ability to take part in measurements.

Exclusion Criteria

Children in the 4th and 5th grade will be excluded from participation in the obesogenic behavior assessments because they will move out of elementary school over the two-year study.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 5 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 9 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of South Carolina

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

R. Glenn Weaver

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

University of South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Countries

United States

References

Weaver RG, Armstrong B, Hunt E, Beets MW, Brazendale K, Dugger R, Turner-McGrievy G, Pate RR, Maydeu-Olivares A, Saelens B, Youngstedt SD. The impact of summer vacation on children's obesogenic behaviors and body mass index: a natural experiment. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2020 Nov 26;17(1):153. doi: 10.1186/s12966-020-01052-0.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 33243252 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Pro00065211

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id