Context: Existing reviews of physical activity (PA) interventions designed to increase PA behavior exclusively in children (ages 5 to 11years) focus primarily on the efficacy (e.g., internal validity) of the interventions without addressing the applicability of the results in terms of generalizability and translatability (e.g., external validity).
Objective: This review used the RE-AIM (Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework to measure the degree to which randomized and non-randomized PA interventions in children report on internal and external validity factors.
Methods and results: A systematic search for controlled interventions conducted within the past 12years identified 78 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Based on the RE-AIM criteria, most of the studies focused on elements of internal validity (e.g., sample size, intervention location and efficacy/effectiveness) with minimal reporting of external validity indicators (e.g., representativeness of participants, start-up costs, protocol fidelity and sustainability).
Conclusions: Results of this RE-AIM review emphasize the need for future PA interventions in children to report on real-world challenges and limitations, and to highlight considerations for translating evidence-based results into health promotion practice.
Keywords: Child; Health behavior; Health promotion; Intervention studies; Physical activity; Program evaluation; RE-AIM; Review; Schools; Translation.
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