An Evaluation of "Growing Healthy Places: Mississauga"

Summary

The goal of this intervention study is to learn if community co-designed activities to improve diet and physical activity can impact the health of children ages 6-13 in Mississauga, Canada. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Do the community co-designed interventions improve health-related quality of life of children after one year and two years?
2. Do the community co-designed interventions improve the physical activity and eating behaviors of children after one year and two years?

Ten intervention and 12 control schools will take part in this study. The schools were recruited from the Mississauga area using an application process. Selection and group assignment involved a multi-stage process with initial randomization followed by manual adjustment (to balance groups on key observable characteristics and respond to stakeholder concerns about spillovers and implementation feasibility).

Researchers will compare students in schools that receive the interventions to students in schools that receive no interventions to see if the interventions improve health-related quality of life, increase physical activity and improve eating behaviors.

Participants will:

* attend participating elementary or middle schools (in either intervention neighborhoods or control neighborhoods)
* complete an anonymous questionnaire about their wellbeing, physical activity, and eating behaviors at baseline, after one year, and after two years
* potentially participate in school and community programs (if in an intervention school neighborhood)

Conditions

• Quality of Life (QOL)
• Physical Activity
• Diet Quality
• Obesity &Amp; Overweight
• Body Esteem
• Community

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Community Co-designed Physical Activity and Diet Intervention Package

A package of 4-6 diet and physical activity interventions selected from a long-list of potential interventions and adapted to the unique school and neighborhood context via consultation with community stakeholders. Intervention packages are multi-level (i.e. targeting at least two of individual, external and structural environments), target elements of both diet and physical activity, and are health equity oriented in terms of both access and improvement. Long-list potential interventions include items related to school intramural programming, active transport, health education, community recreational programming, and structural/public space design improvements.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Novo Nordisk A/S

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Delivery Associates

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Ophea

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• 8 80 Cities

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• The Behavioural Insights Team

  collaborator OTHER

• Brock University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

13 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-10-16

Primary Completion

2027-11-30

Completion

2027-11-30

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations