Development and Testing of an Out-of-School Hours Care Professional Development Program: A Pilot Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

Background

The aim of this study was to describe the co-creation and test the feasibility, acceptability and potential efficacy of an Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) staff professional development intervention to increase child adherence to moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) guidelines and fruit and vegetable (F&V) provision in the OSHC setting.

Methods

Four OSHC services participated in a 1-month, 2-arm pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. Services had their before and after school care programmes visited twice at baseline and at follow-up. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed through recruitment/attendance rates and online feedback surveys. Child MVPA was assessed using Actigraph accelerometers and F&V provision with direct observation.

Results

Intervention adherence was feasible, with 60% of total staff employed by services completing the intervention. The intervention was acceptable, with all participants agreeing to the intervention being enjoyable and improving their knowledge of physical activity (PA) and healthy eating. The proportion of children meeting guidelines of 15 min of MVPA in before school care and 30 min in after school care increased over time in both groups. There were no significant between-group differences in these changes; however, small to medium effect sizes were detected. Frequency of fruit provision increased more in before school care intervention programmes and vegetable provision increased more in both before and after school care intervention programmes.

Conclusions

A PA and healthy eating professional development intervention in OSHC is both feasible and acceptable.

So What?

Larger trials are recommended to evaluate intervention scale-up and effectiveness on child MVPA and service F&V provision.