The Effect of Increased Physical Activity on Adolescents' Health and Academic Performance: The School in Motion Study

A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effect of Increased Physical Education and Physical Activity on Adolescents' Physical and Mental Health, Academic Performance and Learning Environment

This study evaluates the effect of 120 minutes extra of physical education (PE) or physical activity (PA) on adolescents' physical health, mental health, academic performance and learning environment. This is a cluster-randomized controlled trial with three arms, where the participants in two of the groups will have different models of increased PE/PA during the school week, whereas the participants in the third arm is the control group including current practice.

This is a school-based, three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) recruiting adolescents from secondary schools in Norway. Adolescents (aged 14-15 years) were the unit of analysis, and schools (clusters) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions:

1. the physical active learning group (PAL-group), where the schools each week include one additional physical education (PE) lesson, 30 minutes of physical active learning, and 30 minutes of physical activity (intervention condition);
2. the don't worry - be happy group (DWBH-group), where the schools include one new activity class (60 minutes: Be Happy class) and one additional PE-class (60 minutes: Don't Worry class) per week (intervention condition);or
3. current practice (control condition). An identical set of outcome measures are taken from all participants at baseline, and approximately 12 months after the baseline measures, when the participants were at the end of year 9

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects enrolled in 9th grade

Exclusion Criteria:

• None