Trial Review

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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12618001148268
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
1/07/2018
Date registered
12/07/2018
Date last updated
9/07/2019
Date data sharing statement initially provided
9/07/2019
Date results information initially provided
9/07/2019
Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Increasing uptake of the NSW Government’s Active Kids Voucher
Scientific title
Increasing uptake of the NSW Government’s Active Kids Voucher: a cluster randomised control trial.
Secondary ID [1] 295280 0
None
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
Obesity 308456 0
Physical inactivity 308457 0
Condition category
Condition code
Public Health 307438 307438 0 0
Health promotion/education

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
The intervention will seek to increase the redemption (uptake), by parents, of children attending intervention schools, of the NSW Government’s Active Kids Voucher.
The intervention is designed to be able to be delivered at scale, across an entire region, hence the intervention involves partnering with a third party school app provider - Skoolbag. Skoolbag is an app commonly used by schools to provide a communication platform between school administration and parents. Parents can download the app for free and the school can communicate school events, documentation and messages in a simple, easy to use way. The Skoolbag app will be used to send notifications to parents aimed at increasing uptake of the Active Kids Voucher.

Notifications of no more than 200 characters will be sent to parents via the Skoolbag app, one per month over 10 months. An example notification is below;
Thinking about getting your kids active? It’s easy. Access the $100 Active Kids Voucher and find a registered activity provider today: http://bit.ly/2DKbAMs

Intervention uptake will be monitored through Skoolbag via; i) viewing rates of push notifications; and ii) open rates of intervention content.
Intervention code [1] 301611 0
Behaviour
Intervention code [2] 301612 0
Prevention
Comparator / control treatment
The delivery of all intervention components will be controlled by the research team and will not be provided to control group schools. During the trial period, parents of children attending control schools, will potentially be exposed to the rebate voucher through usual interaction as part of health service delivery and through Government and sporting club advertising and marketing. Exposure to such will be collected by the research team during the follow-up survey with parents.
Control group
Active

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 306403 0
The proportion of parents who report, via a telephone survey, downloading an Active Kids Voucher for their child.
Timepoint [1] 306403 0
Follow-up - primary endpoint (6mths).
Primary outcome [2] 306404 0
The proportion of parents who report, via a telephone survey, redeeming the Active Kids Voucher through a registered sporting group/club.
Timepoint [2] 306404 0
Follow-up - primary endpoint (6mths).
Secondary outcome [1] 348406 0
The number of parents who report their child commenced a new or additional sport or activity, using the Active Kids Voucher that they had not done previously.
Timepoint [1] 348406 0
Follow-up (6mths).
Secondary outcome [2] 348407 0
The type of organised and individual sports taken up using the Active Kids Voucher will be assessed via a study-specific parent telephone survey.
Timepoint [2] 348407 0
Follow-up (6mths).
Secondary outcome [3] 348408 0
Child physical activity outside of school hours will be assessed via a study-specific parent telephone survey.
Timepoint [3] 348408 0
Follow-up (6mths).
Secondary outcome [4] 348409 0
Child time spent participating in the sport/activity using the Active Kids Voucher will be assessed via a study-specific parent telephone survey.
Timepoint [4] 348409 0
Follow-up (6mths).
Secondary outcome [5] 348410 0
Child well-being will be assessed using the Peds QL parent report questionnaire for children (ages 8-12 year) via a parent telephone survey. Child physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning and school functioning will assessed as part of this survey.
Timepoint [5] 348410 0
Follow-up (6mths).

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
A random sample of Catholic Primary Schools within the Hunter New England Local Health District of NSW, that currenlty use the Skoolbag app as a communicaiton platform with parents.
Minimum age
5 Years
Maximum age
12 Years
Sex
Both males and females
Can healthy volunteers participate?
Yes
Key exclusion criteria
Schools that do not use the Skoolbag app. Goverment or other Independent schools.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Prevention
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
Parents not informed of the experimental manipulation.
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
Masking / blinding
Who is / are masked / blinded?



Intervention assignment
Parallel
Other design features
Sample recruited from an existing cohort of parents of children that participated in a separate randomised control trial to improve school lunchbox contents and physical activity levels of children (ACTRN12616001228471).
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Efficacy
Statistical methods / analysis

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Completed
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
16/07/2018
Actual
16/07/2018
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
20/07/2018
Actual
20/07/2018
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
30/06/2019
Actual
19/12/2018
Sample size
Target
12
Accrual to date
Final
12
Recruitment in Australia
Recruitment state(s)
NSW

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 299871 0
Charities/Societies/Foundations
Name [1] 299871 0
Cancer Council
Country [1] 299871 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
University
Name
University of Newcastle
Address
University Drive
Callaghan NSW 2308
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 299222 0
None
Name [1] 299222 0
Address [1] 299222 0
Country [1] 299222 0

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 300743 0
Hunter New England Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 300743 0
Hunter New England Research Ethics & Governance Office
Locked Bag No 1
HRMC NSW 2310
Ethics committee country [1] 300743 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 300743 0
Approval date [1] 300743 0
07/03/2018
Ethics approval number [1] 300743 0

Summary
Brief summary
The NSW Government’s Active Kids Voucher is a program designed to help families meet the cost of getting their kids into sport and active fitness and recreation activities. The initiative aims to reduce barriers to participation and help change the physical activity behaviours of children and young people in NSW. The NSW Government will provide a $100 voucher to parents/guardians of school enrolled children aged 4.5 to 18 years’ old. The $100 voucher can be used for registration and participation costs for sport and fitness activities and will not be means tested. One voucher will be available for every child in the family annually over the next four years and there will be no limits on the number of applications per family, as long as every child is enrolled in school.
From 31 January 2018, parents/guardians/carers with legal responsibility of an eligible child resident in NSW will be able to download a voucher from an online platform, run by Service NSW. Vouchers are valid for redemption in the current calendar year and will expire at the end of each calendar year.
The Active Kids Voucher is an opportunity to increase physical activity of children and will therefore be promoted to all schools within the HNE region during usual interaction with schools as part of health service delivery. The identification of strategies to increase the uptake and advantages of the program, are also warranted.
The primary aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of promoting the Active Kids Voucher program to parents using a school based mobile communication platform on voucher redemption. The study will employ a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) design including six intervetnion and six control schools. The intervention involves partnering with a third party school app provider - Skoolbag. Skoolbag is an app commonly used by schools to provide a communication platform between school administration and parents. Parents can download the app for free and the school can communicate school events, documentation and messages in a simple, easy to use way. The Skoolbag app will be used to send notifications to parents aimed at increasing uptake of the Active Kids Voucher.
The effectiveness of the intervention will be determined by comparing post intervention differences between uptake and redemption of the Active Kids Voucher. The proposed research will be one of the first RCTs of its kind and addresses questions of particular policy relevance.
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 84666 0
Ms Kathryn Reilly
Address 84666 0
Hunter New England Population Health
Longworth Ave Wallsend NSW 2287
Country 84666 0
Australia
Phone 84666 0
+61 249 246 474
Fax 84666 0
Email 84666 0
kathryn.reilly@health.nsw.gov.au
Contact person for public queries
Name 84667 0
Ms Kathryn Reilly
Address 84667 0
Hunter New England Population Health
Longworth Ave Wallsend NSW 2287
Country 84667 0
Australia
Phone 84667 0
+61 249 246 474
Fax 84667 0
Email 84667 0
kathryn.reilly@health.nsw.gov.au
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 84668 0
A/Prof Luke Wolfenden
Address 84668 0
Hunter New England Population Health
Longworth Ave Wallsend NSW 2287
Country 84668 0
Australia
Phone 84668 0
+61 249 246 567
Fax 84668 0
Email 84668 0
luke.wolfenden@health.nsw.gov.au

Data sharing statement
Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?
No
No/undecided IPD sharing reason/comment
There is no ethics approval to share individual participant data.


What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided



Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.