BOOSTH: Promoting Physical Activity in Primary Schools in Combination With Serious Gaming
Condition: Physical Activity; Serious Game; Child Behavior; School Intervention
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Physical inactivity is considered to be one of the ten principal risk factors for death
      worldwide. Children need to perform one hour of daily moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical
      activity whereof at least twice a week these activities are of vigorous intensity. In 2010,
      the percentage of 4-11 year-old normoactive Dutch children was approximately 20%.Previous
      interventions that aimed to increase childhood physical activity produced small to negligible
      effects. One possible explanation is that individuals were not intrinsically motivated
      towards physical activity during the intervention period. Children spend a substantial amount
      of their time behind a game consule. There are a number of applications that motivate
      increase in physical activity in a fun way through engaging individuals in games that mix
      real and computing worlds. These games became known as serious games. In this study we want
      to investigate if the incorporation of a serious game BOOSTH in combination with an activity
      tracker and battle to stimulate physical activity behaviour in primary school children
      (grades 5th to 7th).
    

Detailed description: 
      The study design will be a randomized controlled trial regarding a physical activity
      intervention. A 1:1 randomization will be applied with intervention schools and matched
      control schools. The intervention school will recieve the BOOSTH intervention. The
      intervention duration is 6 months. Measurements will be performed at baseline and 3, 6 and 12
      months after the start.

      The investigational treatment is the BOOSTH physical activity intervention. Children in the
      intervention school will start with the BOOSTH intervention on top of the regular PE lessons.
      The child will receive the BOOSTH activity tracker. The child (under supervision of the
      teacher) needs to download the BOOSTH sync app and the BOOSTH game app. Therefore it is
      important that the school works with a device with Bluetooth. We will create a login account
      for each child. After installing the apps, the activity tracker measures step counts, which
      are translated into activity points. These activity points will be used to unlock levels in
      the BOOSTH game app. The child synchronizes their activity points, with Bluetooth connection,
      in the BOOSTH sync app and immediately the child can open the BOOSTH game app to play a level
      in the game. The child needs seven green lights (corresponding to 30 minutes of performed
      physical activity) to unlock a level in the game. The first four levels are for free, to gain
      the interests of the child, but thereafter the child needs to be physically active to unlock
      the rest of the levels in the game.
    

Intervention name(s): BOOSTH
Intervention type(s): Device
Intervention description(s): BOOSTH as a serious game is used as a tool to motivate children to perform more PA. BOOSTH uses the combination of a smartphone game and a pedometer that assesses daily PA by measuring steps/day. The BOOSTH activity monitor is a wrist-worn activity monitor that is able to provide online feedback on the child's PA levels. Moreover, BOOSTH is a reward-based game as a child is given incentive to increase their PA level, in order to acquire activity points which later can be used to unlock levels and progress in the BOOSTH game.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: The study design will be a randomized controlled trial regarding a physical activity intervention. A 1:1 randomization will be applied with intervention schools and matched control schools. The intervention school will recieve the BOOSTH intervention
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: physical activity; serious game; school intervention; children