Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the physical activity of Year 6 children and their parents: Identifying scalable actions to mitigate adverse impacts & provide rapid evidence to policy makers (ACTIVE-6)

Background: Physical activity is important for health and well-being in children and adults. The end of primary school is key for maximising physical activity into secondary school. Covid-19 and lockdown measures have had a profound impact on the whole system which surrounds and impacts on children and parents’ physical activity.

The closure of parks, schools, extra-curricular activities, as well as changes to employment, income, and housing security have all affected physical activity. These impacts are unlikely to be uniform with people living with greater inequalities are likely to be more profoundly affected.

This project will examine the impact of COVID-19 on the physical activity of Year 6 children and their parents and what can be done to minimise adverse impacts of physical activity restrictions while not exacerbating inequalities. We will identify key knowledge so that if there is a second wave of the virus, we are better prepared to keep people active and can make decisions based on evidence of what works.

Methods: The proposed study is a repeated cross-sectional quantitative design with linked qualitative study. The comparator will be pre-COVID data. For the quantitative data we will collect data at two time-points Time1 will be between March - December 2020. This will provide data on the acute impacts on physical activity. Time2 will assess the same measures, in the same schools between January and July 2022 to provide information on chronic impacts.

The primary outcome (for children and parents) will be accelerometer measured average minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity per day. We will also use child and parent surveys to assess demographics, and psychosocial variables. We will use a school audit to assess physical activity policies and changes to provision since the virus.

We will also examine the implications of COVID-19 on the time and resources that schools allocate to physical activity and family members health-related quality of life.

Data will be compared to a survey of 1296-Year 6 children and their parents collected 3-years earlier, in the same schools using the same methods (Time 0). We will conduct focus groups with 48 children and interviews with 30 parents and 18 teachers in a sub-group of schools at Times 1 and 2 to identify how patterns of behaviour and provision have changed in response to the virus and what could be put in place to mitigate impacts.

We will use multi-level models to examine differences in physical activity at Time 1, when contrasted with Time0. We will then examine the extent to which the family and school level variables explain differences. The process will be repeated for Time 2.

The qualitative data will be analysed to identify identity changes in provision and actions that have been taken to mitigate impacts. We will conduct rapid analyses of the data at 5 time points to provide summaries of how physical activity patterns have changed and mitigation strategies that have some evidence of promise to policy makers.

Timelines: This is a 27-month project starting March 2021.

Anticipated impact: This study will provide data on the magnitude and type of changes in physical activity that have occurred in response to the pandemic but more importantly we will identify strategies that could be put in place at scale to mitigate adverse impacts.