AFTERSCHOOL RX: USING A COMMUNITY-BASED PRESCRIPTION TO IMPROVE MOVEMENT BEHAVIORS AMONG CHILDREN WITH ELEVATED CARDIOMETABOLIC RISK

PURPOSE: This pilot study tested the preliminary effect of providing prescriptions for free, community-based afterschool programs (ASPs) to improve children’s movement behaviors (physical activity [PA] and sleep), to ultimately reduce cardiovascular risk. METHODS: Twelve children (10.5 ± 1.2 years; 58% female; 50% White) with elevated cardiovascular risk factors (overweight/obesity; elevated blood pressure) were provided 17-weeks of free ASP (local YMCA) in Spring 2024. Children wore an Axivity AX3 on their non-dominant wrist for 14 days before and during the ASPs to measure PA and sleep. Accelerometry was processed using GGIR (v3.1.4) using the Hildebrand cutpoints. Mixed effects models compared children’s movement behaviors on weekdays at both time points. Sex, age, and accelerometer non-wear time were included as covariates. RESULTS: At baseline, children had an average nocturnal sleep duration of 403.1 ± 81.8 min, spent 469.9 ± 154.3 min physically inactive, spent 405.3 ± 229.6 min in light PA (LPA), and spent 51.6 ± 35.2 min in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Mixed effects models suggested that on days the ASPs were offered, children had significantly more MVPA (B = 8.7; 95CI = 1.1, 16.2) compared to baseline. By contrast, children had significantly less LPA (B = -135.5; 95CI = -173.8, -97.3) and spent significantly more time physically inactive (B = 117.6; 95CI = 69.8, 165.3). There was no significant change in children’s sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study found mixed preliminary results in the efficacy of ASP prescriptions on at-risk children’s movement behaviors; therefore, future studies need to include larger sample sizes to give confidence to our findings. Additionally, future studies need to examine how this combination of improved and worsened movement behaviors impacts cardiovascular risk among children. Furthermore, future research may consider evaluating the time segmentation of when these behaviors are occurring within the day. Supported by: Transformative Seed Grant from Health Sciences Center at Prisma Health