Evaluation of a real world intervention using professional football players to promote a healthy diet and physical activity in children and adolescents from a lower socio-economic background: a controlled pretest-posttest design

Abstract

BackgroundThe increasing rates of obesity among children and adolescents, especially in those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, emphasise the need for interventions promoting a healthy diet and physical activity. The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the ‘Health Scores!’ program, which combined professional football player role models with a school-based program to promote a healthy diet and physical activity to socially vulnerable children and adolescents.MethodsThe intervention was implemented in two settings: professional football clubs and schools. Socially vulnerable children and adolescents (n = 165 intervention group, n = 440 control group, aged 10-14 year) provided self-reported data on dietary habits and physical activity before and after the four-month intervention. Intervention effects were evaluated using repeated measures analysis of variance. In addition, a process evaluation was conducted.ResultsNo intervention effects were found for several dietary behaviours, including consumption of breakfast, fruit, soft drinks or sweet and savoury snacks. Positive intervention effects were found for self-efficacy for having a daily breakfast (p < 0.01), positive attitude towards vegetables consumption (p < 0.01) and towards lower soft drink consumption (p < 0.001). A trend towards significance (p < 0.10) was found for self-efficacy for reaching the physical activity guidelines. For sports participation no significant intervention effect was found. In total, 92 pupils completed the process evaluation, the feedback was largely positive.ConclusionsThe ‘Health Scores!’ intervention was successful in increasing psychosocial correlates of a healthy diet and PA. The use of professional football players as a credible source for health promotion was appealing to socially vulnerable children and adolescents.

A cluster-randomised controlled trial to promote physical activity in adolescents: the Raising Awareness of Physical Activity (RAW-PA) Study

“…This is despite the fact that disadvantage is linked with declines in physical activity during the teenage years [10] and a greater risk of poor health outcomes across the life course [9]. To date, only a small number of studies have delivered interventions specifically targeting adolescents living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, and limited effects on physical activity levels have been observed [15, 16, 18, 20, 67]. …”

“…All of these factors have a negative impact on the reach and sustainability of such approaches. In addition, existing approaches have often focused on sport [13, 20, 21], which may not be appealing to inactive adolescents who have little or no involvement in organised sport [22]. As such, there is a need for further research to examine non-curriculum based, lower resource intensive approaches for promoting physical activity levels in adolescents living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.…”

An evaluation of opportunistic health checks at cricket matches: the Boundaries for Life initiative

“…There is now an emerging body of literature demonstrating the potential for sports stadia to be used in the promotion of healthy lifestyles, highlighting the power of a club's brand and the iconic status of sports venues to engage fans and members of the local community with a view to influence changes in lifestyle behaviours (Drygas et al 2013;Pringle et al 2013). The majority of successful projects are those that engage target groups of fans or members of the local community on non-matchdays, for example work undertaken in Scotland using sports clubs and their venues for successful weight loss programme for overweight male football fans (Hunt et al 2014), a project in Belgium using professional football settings and players to promote better diet and levels of physical activity in socially disadvantaged young people (Dubuy et al 2014), and a project using football settings to improve levels of physical activity and social interaction in older adults over 55 years old (Parnell et al 2015). As sporting events attract large crowds in their tens of thousands, it has been speculated that matchday sports settings may be harnessed for the purposes of health promotion and health interventions, whilst certain sports may be effective in targeting particular high risk groups.…”

Bystander CPR: New aspects of CPR training among students and the importance of bystander education level on survival

“…134 Professional athletes may act as role models and promote a healthy lifestyle among children and adolescents. 165,166 Before the CPR training, students in the AWET, DWET, AWERT and DWERT groups had a 60 minute visit from two elite athletes, male hockey players or female soccer players. For the first 30 minutes, the athletes discussed the importance of acting in a CA situation, showed a video on CA during a sport event and promoted health lifestyle choices (exercise, diet and avoiding smoking) to prevent cardiovascular disease.…”

“…128,131 Thus, sports clubs and elite athletes are sometimes used as role models to generate students' commitment to the subject and to promote healthy lifestyles of youngsters. 135,165,166 Therefore, we examined the impact of elite athletes as role models to increase students' motivation, willingness to act and to promote learning. The athletes introduced the lesson by showing a video on a CA during a sports event (by emotional involvement, hopefully, they increased the participants' interest in the topic) and then gave an oral presentation integrated within discussion.…”