Introduction: A considerable proportion of children do not meet recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines. Improving parents’ awareness of their child’s PA is a promising pathway to increase children’s PA levels, and the feasibility of providing parents with multidimensional feedback of their child’s PA in attempt to achieve this has not been tested. Objectives: 1) develop a method of providing multidimensional feedback to parents on their children’s PA; 2) describe how parents respond to feedback of their child’s PA; 3) investigate whether receiving feedback can impact children’s short-term PA; and 4) establish parents’ opinions on children wearing PA monitors. Methods: Parents (n=15) and their children (n=17) wore a Bodymedia Armband for seven days before feedback was delivered to parents in one-to-one audio-recorded interviews. Parents’ responses to receiving feedback and their opinions on children wearing PA monitors were recorded, and later analysed using a thematic method of analysis. Changes in children’s PA behaviours were reported by parents in a follow-up telephone call one month after receiving feedback. Results: Parents reported feedback as useful and motivating. Ten out of 13 parents reported improvements in their child’s PA behaviours. Six out of 10 parents reported that they would prefer their child to receive sporadic multidimensional PA feedback, rather than wear a real-time PA monitor. Conclusions: Providing parents with sporadic personalised multidimensional feedback of their own and their child’s PA could foster sustained engagement in PA for both adults and children. Further research is required to investigate the impact of this in more general populations.
Increasing Physical Activity Levels in Children by Increasing Parents’ Awareness of their Child’s Physical Activity: A Feasibility Study
Hayward, M. (Author). 2019
Student thesis: Masters Thesis › MSc