American journal of preventive medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Making policy practice in afterschool programs: a randomized controlled trial on physical activity changes.
In the U.S., afterschool programs are asked to promote moderate to vigorous physical activity. One policy that has considerable public health importance is California's afterschool physical activity guidelines that indicate all children attending an afterschool program accumulate 30 minutes each day the program is operating. Few effective strategies exist for afterschool programs to meet this policy goal. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a multistep adaptive intervention designed to assist afterschool programs in meeting the 30-minute/day moderate to vigorous physical activity policy goal. ⋯ The Strategies To Enhance Practice intervention can make meaningful changes in the proportion of children meeting the moderate to vigorous physical activity policy within one school year. Additional efforts are required to enhance the impact of the intervention.