Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the physical activity of Year 6 children and their parents: Identifying scalable actions to mitigate adverse impacts and provide rapid evidence to policy makers

Physical activity is important for health among children and their parents. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated social changes, such as the lockdown, have had a marked impact on physical activity patterns but without data it is impossible to know the magnitude of these effects, how they may differ by demographic variables or the possible solutions for those challenges.
The aim of this project is to examine the impact of changes that have resulted from COVID-19 on the physical activity of Year 6 children and their parents. Specifically, we want to know if there is an acute change in physical activity and if that change is maintained, thereby indicating a chronic impact.
We propose to conduct rigorous in-depth analysis of the changes in physical activity in children and parents and provide rapid feedback to policy makers on the nature and scale of the challenge in order that evidence-driven solutions can be sought.

The ACTIVE-6 study is due to begin in April 2021 and will collect data in two waves. Wave one: June 2021 – December 2021; Wave two: January 2022 – July 2022.

The study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Public Health Research Program project number 131847. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NIHR PHR Programme or the Department of Health.

This study was approved by the School for Policy Studies (University of Bristol), Ethics and Research Committee on 9th March 2021 (Ref SPSREC/20-21/150).