An Evaluation of "Growing Healthy Places: Mississauga"

An Evaluation of "Growing Healthy Places: Mississauga"

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)

Inclusion Criteria:

• Informed consent obtained by the child's parent or legal guardian before any study-related activities
• Aged 6-13 years (both 6 and 13 allowed) at the time of signing consent
• Enrolled in Grades 3-8 in one of the participating schools at the time of data collection

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parent(s) or legal guardians do not provide fully informed consent
• Parent(s) or legal guardians withdraw their consent for their child participating in the research
• Child does not agree to participate on the data collection day