Reconstructing schoolyards with greenery to increase schoolchildren´s physical activity and health and mitigate climate changes in urban areas

BackgroundThe school environment plays a crucial role in establishing healthy physical activity behaviors for a population.

Unfortunately, most schoolyards in Stockholm lack appealing play areas and sun protective areas and are instead dominated by concrete and asphalt surfaces.

Reconstructing schoolyards with greenery is a promising primary prevention strategy to increase physical activity levels among children at the population level and mitigate environmental risks resulting from increasing climate changes in urban areas.Project aimsIncrease physical activity levels among school children, independent of socioeconomic factorsEstablish an evidence-based bottom-up approach for schoolyard reconstructionsEvaluate the cost-effectiveness of schoolyard reconstructions with greenery on health outcomes and its environmental impact Methods A formal decision has been made by the City of  Stockholm to reconstruct 20 Stockholm public schoolyards from 2024 to 2027.

This project is a co-creation effort between the City of Stockholm, Cancerfonden, Arwidssonstiftelsen and Karolinska Institutet evaluating the effects of this decision. The project will be designed as a stepped-wedge trial, with schools serving as both intervention and control schools.

Over the course of 4-years, a total of 20 schoolyard reconstructions will be evaluated, with 5 reconstructions per year. The units of observation will be second and fifth grade children, totaling 3,600 children.