Data from: EdAl-2 (Educació en Alimentació) programme: reproducibility of a cluster randomised, interventional, primary-school-based study to induce healthier lifestyle activities in children

Objectives: To assess the reproducibility of an educational intervention EdAl-2 programme in “Terres de l’Ebre” (Spain), over 22 months, to improve lifestyles, including diet and physical activity (PA) Design: Reproduction of a cluster randomised controlled trial Setting: Two semi-rural town-group primary-school clusters were randomly assigned to intervention or control group Participants: Pupils (n=690) of which 320 constituted intervention group (1 cluster) and 370 constituted control group (1 cluster). Ethnicity was 78% Western European. Mean age (±SD) was 8.04±0.6 years (47.7% females) at baseline. Inclusion criteria for clusters were towns from the southern part of Catalonia having a minimum of 500 children aged 7 to 8 year; and complete data for participants, including name, gender, date and place of birth, and written informed consent from parents or guardians. Intervention: The intervention focused on 8 lifestyle topics covered in 12 activities (1h/activity/session) implemented by health promoting agents in the primary-school over 3 academic years. Primary and secondary outcomes: the primary outcome was obesity (OB) prevalence and the secondary outcomes were body mass index (BMI) collected every year, and dietary habits and lifestyles collected by questionnaires filled-in by parents at baseline and end-of-study. Results: At 22 months, the obesity prevalence and BMI values were similar in intervention and control groups. Relative to children in control schools, the percentage of boys in the intervention group who performed ≥4 after-school PA h/week was 15% higher (p=0.027), whereas the percentage of girls of both groups remained similar. Also, 16.6% more boys in the intervention group watched ≤2 TV h/day (p=0.009), compared to controls; and no changes were observed in girls of both groups. Conclusions: Our school-based intervention is feasible and reproducible by increasing after-school PA (to ≥4h/week) in boys induced healthy lifestyle effects while, the prevalence of OB was not significantly changed.