community park-based programs for health promotion: fit2play prospective cohort study

Conditions: Overweight; Obesity; Hypertension; Prehypertension; Anxiety; Well-being; Depression; Low Physical Fitness; Psychological

Summary: the fit2play prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth physical activity afterschool program on youth participant fitness and mental health outcomes. duke will perform a secondary analysis of the data collected as part of the fit2play prospective cohort study run by miami-dade county parks and recreation.

the fit2play prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth physical activity afterschool program on youth participant fitness and mental health outcomes. the fit2play program was designed by a team of mdpros professionals and um faculty. it is a daily after-school park-based program (monday-friday, 2 pm-6 pm) that comprises (1) 60 minutes of physical activity that incorporates multiple sports (soccer, kickball, flag football) and activities from sports, play and active recreation for kids (spark), a play- and evidenced-based, outcome-oriented, structured, active recreation program for children with a focus on developing and improving motor skills, movement knowledge, social and personal skills; and (2) 20-30 minutes of nutrition education lessons 1-2 times per week that incorporate empowerme4life, a health and wellness curriculum aligned to the national health education standards for fifth grade and grounded in the american heart association's scientific recommendations in promoting heart-healthy lifestyles. fit2play programming is implemented by park coaches, who are hired with health and wellness training and/or education-specific background(s) with at least a high school degree. participants are divided into younger (6-9 years) and older (10-14 years) age groups regardless of weight status, and coaches choose daily age-appropriate spark and other physical activities for each group. with an oversight from a registered dietician, similarly, the um-mdpros team has expanded the empowerme4life curriculum to include younger (6-9 years) and older (10-14 years) age group modules. the research team includes a large community organization (miami-dade county parks and recreation department). all consented fit2play participants (400-800 per year) complete a baseline (august/september) and post-test (may/june) assessment during each school year of participation that include demographic, mental health symptom questionnaires, satisfaction surveys, and on-site physical fitness and biometric measurements. data collection is performed by a core mdpros measurement team who are trained and certified by university of miami school of medicine faculty. in addition, mdpros bachelor/master's level recreation directors oversee on-site measurement procedures and collection of all predata and postdata to ensure measurement fidelity. data are then uploaded to a shared (parks and university) database via a data management team.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * all participants enrolled in the miami-dade fit2play study will be included in this secondary analysis exclusion criteria: * anyone not enrolled in the miami-dade fit2play study will be excluded from this secondary analysis

Keywords: youth afterschool parks and recreation mental health physical health physical activity exercise