Western Australian Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition (WASPAN)

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND NUTRITION (WASPAN)

OVERVIEW

The Western Australian Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition (WASPAN) program is a school-based obesity prevention intervention. The program has physical activity and nutrition components. In an evaluation of the program, 18 schools were randomly assigned to have their children participate in one of the following three study groups: 1) the WASPAN program group, 2) the WASPAN program with additional physical education enrichment group, or 3) a no-treatment control group. Results indicated that the intervention groups experienced significant increases in physical fitness relative to the control group at the short- and long-term follow-ups. However, the intervention did not impact BMI. Furthermore, success on other obesity indicators, including physical activity, skinfold thickness, and nutrition, varied by subgroup and follow-up time point.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: 11-year-old children.

The Western Australian Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition (WASPAN) program is a school-based intervention designed to combat and prevent obesity in children. The program consists of physical activity and nutrition components, and there is also the option of adding a physical education enrichment component. The program is implemented over two, ten-week school terms.

The physical activity program consists of six initial classroom lessons to establish a rationale for the intervention. These sessions are followed by daily 20 minute fitness sessions that foster small group activities and cater to individual fitness levels. These fitness sessions typically occur four times per week.

The nutrition component consists of one hour of class time per week devoted to learning about healthy eating. Children are taught relevant skill-building techniques, such as formulating grocery lists, learning healthy and age appropriate recipes, and learning how to resist peer pressure to eat unhealthily.

The optional physical education enrichment component encourages student activity outside of the classroom. Children are asked to keep daily physical activity diaries, which are used by teachers to evaluate each individual's preferred activities. Teachers and students also work together to establish physical fitness goals and assess how these goals could be obtained. Additionally, parents are asked to monitor diary completion and to encourage increased physical activity.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Burke, V., Milligan, R.A.K., Thompson, C., Taggart, A.C., Dunbar, D.L., Spencer, M.J., Medland, A., Gracey, M.P., Vandongen, R., & Beilin, L.J. (1998). A controlled trial of health promotion programs in 11-year-olds using physical activity "enrichment" for higher risk children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 132(5), 840-848.

Evaluated population: 800 11-year-olds from 18 schools in Australia served as the sample for this evaluation. A subset of 230 children at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease was examined in additional analyses. These children were classified as being high-risk based measures of blood pressure, physical fitness, body fat percentage, and blood cholesterol.

Approach: Each of the participating 18 high schools was randomly assigned to one of the following three study groups: 1) the WASPAN program group, 2) the WASPAN program with additional physical education enrichment group, or 3) a no-treatment control group. Individuals attending schools receiving only the WASPAN program participated in the WASPAN physical activity and nutrition components of the intervention. Individuals attending schools assigned to the WASPAN plus additional physical education enrichment participated in the same WASPAN physical activity and nutrition activities as the first study group, but also received extra physical activity intervention exercises. Individuals attending the schools assigned to the no-treatment control group received the standard school curriculum.

Students from all of the schools were assessed at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and 6 months after the conclusion of the intervention. Measures of out-of-school physical activity, physical fitness, skinfold thickness, BMI, and nutrition were used during these assessments.

Results:

Physical activity. There were no significant differences across study groups with regards to out-of-school physical activity immediately following the intervention. However, at the 6-month follow-up, boys in the enrichment group significantly decreased their television viewing compared with boys in the WASPAN and control groups.

Physical fitness. Results indicated that children in both the WASPAN and the enrichment groups improved significantly more than children in the control group on measures of physical fitness immediately after the completion of the intervention, and these impacts remained at the 6-month follow-up.

Skinfold thickness. Immediately following the intervention, children in the WASPAN and enrichment groups had experienced significantly greater decreases in skinfold thickness relative to children in the control group. At the 6-month follow-up, only girls in the WASPAN group had significantly greater decreases in skinfold thickness than girls in the other two intervention groups.

BMI. Relative to the control group, children in the intervention groups did not show a significant decrease in BMI immediately after the intervention or at the 6-month follow-up.

Nutrition. Immediately following the intervention, high-risk girls in the enrichment group reported lower sodium intake relative to high-risk girls in the WASPAN and control groups. There were no other significant differences in sodium or fat intake immediately following the intervention or at the 6-month follow-up.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 11 year olds

Evaluated participant grades: N/A

Program age ranges in the guide: Middle Childhood

Program components: School-Based, Parent or Family Component

Measured outcomes: Physical Health

Keywords: Middle Childhood (6-11), School-based, Children (3-11), Nutrition, Overweight, Obese

Program information last updated on 4/1/09.