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STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1458610
This article is part of the Research Topic School-based nutrition and physical activity interventions among children and adolescents View all 11 articles

Effectiveness of a school-based high-intensity interval training intervention in adolescents: study protocol of the PRO-HIIT cluster randomised controlled trial

Provisionally accepted
YONG LIU YONG LIU 1Alan R. Barker Alan R. Barker 1Anna-Lynne R. Adlam Anna-Lynne R. Adlam 1Minghui Li Minghui Li 2Stephanie L. Duncombe Stephanie L. Duncombe 3Andrew O. Agbaje Andrew O. Agbaje 4Yaodong Gu Yaodong Gu 2Huiyu Zhou Huiyu Zhou 2Craig A. Williams Craig A. Williams 1*
  • 1 University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
  • 2 Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 3 School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia
  • 4 Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Northern Savonia, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an effective strategy for improving a variety of health and fitness outcomes within the school settings. Incorporating HIIT into existing physical activity opportunities appears practically feasible, yet the process evaluation and effectiveness of this strategy needs to be further evaluated. Therefore, a PRO-HIIT intervention will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week school-based HIIT intervention on cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity, body composition, muscular strength, bone health, cognitive function, wellbeing and academic performance among 12-13-year-olds.Eight classes of year 7 students (12-13-year-olds) from a secondary school in Ningbo, China, will be recruited and randomly allocated into an intervention or control group. While the control group maintains their usual activities, a 6 to 10-minute HIIT session will be embedded in the physical education or physical activity lessons five days a week for 12 weeks for the intervention group. Training workshops will be conducted for participants, teachers, and research staff for facilitating the intervention. Outcome data will be collected at three time points: pre-and post-intervention, and two months (summer holiday) upon completion of the intervention. Linear mixed models will be used to analyse the impact of groups (intervention and control), timepoints (pre-, post-and two-month after intervention) and group by time interactions. The implementation process of the intervention will be evaluated with the guidance of MRC process evaluation framework.Ethics approval is obtained from the Ningbo University Ethics Committee (TY2024002).Results from PRO-HIIT study will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences as well as local education system. The study protocol has been retrospectively registered on ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration and Results System (NCT06374732), https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06374732.

    Keywords: High-intensity interval training, Schools, adolescents, intervention, Physical Fitness

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 08 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 LIU, Barker, Adlam, Li, Duncombe, Agbaje, Gu, Zhou and Williams. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Craig A. Williams, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

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