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The problem
Intervention: School-based physical education and school-day activity interventions
Who it was tested with: Preschool children (3-6 years) and school-aged children (6-12 years).
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, an extensive search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry, and Scopus up to October 2023. Randomized controlled trials evaluating PE- or school-day activity-based interventions targeting physical and/or mental health outcomes in preschool (3-6 years) and school-aged children (6-12 years) were included." This demonstrates a systematic review of experimental studies with no comparison group identified; the meta-analysis aggregates results across diverse trials but finds heterogeneity that prevents definitive conclusions about intervention effectiveness.
Substantial heterogeneity across studies, variability in intervention content, and differences in outcome measurement methods prevent clear conclusions. The review does not provide information about specific country contexts or intervention fidelity.
Across countries and designs
10 studies · 9 countries
