Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Wearable Technology-Based Physical Activity Intervention in Preschoolers: A Pilot Study

Wonwoo Byun, Erica Y. Lau and Timothy A. Brusseau
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Wonwoo Byun: Department of Health, Kinesiology and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Erica Y. Lau: School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Timothy A. Brusseau: Department of Health, Kinesiology and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility and the effectiveness of an intervention that employed a technology-based physical activity (PA) monitoring system and teacher-regulated strategies to promote PA in preschoolers. A total of 93 preschoolers (53% girls, 4.7 years) from 5 child care centers were recruited for a one-week intervention and randomly assigned into control (2 centers, n = 45) or intervention (3 centers, n = 48) group. Key intervention components included: (1) wearable device-based, real-time monitoring of children’s PA by classroom teachers and (2) teacher-regulated strategies for providing more opportunities for PA. Sedentary behavior (SED) and PA were measured using accelerometers. Overall, children in the intervention group showed significantly lower level of SED (31.6 vs. 33.6 min/h) and higher level of total PA (28.4 vs. 26.4 min/h) than children in the control group, after adjusting for age, sex, race, parent education level, parent perception of their child’s PA, BMI, and childcare centers. Teachers in the intervention group reported that the intervention was highly feasible to be implemented in their current classroom settings. In conclusion, we observed high acceptability and initial effectiveness of the current intervention. Subsequent research at larger-scale is warranted to fully evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention strategies tested in this study.

Keywords: physical activity; sedentary behavior; intervention; social ecological model; preschool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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