Project nature: promoting outdoor physical activity in children via primary care

Families face a range of barriers in supporting their children’s active play in nature including family circumstances, environmental constraints, and behavioral factors. Evidence-based strategies to address these barriers are needed. We aimed to develop and pilot test a primary care-based family-centered behavioral intervention to promote active outdoor play in 4–10 year-old children.

Methods

Project Nature, a provider-delivered intervention that provides informational resources and an age-appropriate toy for nature play, was initially developed for children ages 0–3. With stakeholder input, we adapted existing materials for 4–10 year-olds and conducted usability testing at an urban clinic serving families from diverse backgrounds. Subsequently, we conducted a mix-methods pilot study to evaluate intervention feasibility and acceptability. Parents of 4–10 year-olds completed pre- and post-surveys (n = 22), and a purposive subset (n = 10) completed qualitative interviews. Post-intervention, pediatric providers (n = 4) were interviewed about their implementation experiences.

Results

The majority (82%) of parents liked the information provided and the remaining (18%) were neutral. Qualitatively, parents reported that: the toy provided a tangible element to help children and parents be active, they did not use the website, and they wished the intervention emphasized strategies for physical activity during cold and wet seasons. Providers felt the materials facilitated discussion about behavior change with families. There were no statistically significant changes in PA and outdoor time pre- and post-intervention.

Conclusions

Project Nature was welcomed by providers and families and may be a practical intervention to promote outdoor active play during well-child visits. Providing an age-appropriate nature toy seemed to be a critical component of the intervention, and may be worth the additional cost, time and storage space required by clinics. Building from these results, Project Nature should be revised to better support active outdoor play during suboptimal weather and evaluated to test its efficacy in a fully-powered trial.

Author/s:

Georgia M Griffin, Carolina Nieto, Kirsten Senturia, Marshall Brown, Kimberly Garrett, Elizabeth Nguyen, Danette Glassy, Emily Kroshus, Pooja Tandon

Acupuncture Treatment for Symptom Management in Atopic Dermatitis: A Study Protocol for a Randomized, Participant- and Assessor-Blind, Sham-Controlled Trial

Saige Blanchard — Wed, 05 May 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Date Added:

May 5, 2021

Journal/Publication:

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Publication Date:

May 2, 2019

URL:

Acupuncture Treatment for Symptom Management in Atopic Dermatitis: A Study Protocol for a Randomized, Participant- and Assessor-Blind, Sham-Controlled Trial

Type:

Clinical Research Results

Format:

Article

DOI (1):

https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1907578

Keywords

PMID (1):

31186656

MeSH

I would never have imagined that acupuncture could help patients with atopic dermatitis, but it looks like it can.

James W. Mold, MD, MPH

Free full text

View

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with persistent itching, which impairs quality of life (QoL). Although various conventional treatments for AD exist, patients with AD often seek complementary and alternative therapies when conventional therapy has failed to relieve their AD symptoms or has had adverse effects. Acupuncture treatment may relieve AD symptoms, but controlled trials are needed to confirm this. Following our pilot study, which found that acupuncture treatment improves AD symptoms in mild-to-moderate AD patients, we will assess the effect of acupuncture treatment for symptom relief of AD using a trial with a complemented protocol. This is a two-arm, randomized, participant- and assessor-blinded, sham-controlled trial. A total of 36 mild-to-moderate AD patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive eight sessions twice weekly of either verum acupuncture (VA) or nonpenetrating sham acupuncture (SA) over four weeks. The primary outcome measured will be the change in the total Scoring Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) score. Secondary outcomes will be (1) changes in AD symptoms, QoL, dyspepsia symptoms, and electroencephalography (EEG) between baseline and week 4 and (2) changes in AD symptoms and QoL at baseline and at weeks 2, 4, and 8. This study will assess acupuncture treatment for the alleviation of AD symptoms in patients with mild-to-moderate AD. This clinical trial gas been registered in Korean Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: KCT0002796; date of registration: April 13, 2018).

Author/s:

Park. J. G., Park, H.J., Chae, Y., Kim, Y., Lee, H., Kim, K.