EXAMPLE PAPER.

PICOT Question

In 5 to 18-year old school-going children, how does school-based nutritional and physical activity program compared with no intervention reduce the incidence of childhood obesity within 6 months?

Lack of appropriate nutritional diet, and physical activity are among the leading causes of obesity among children, which contributes to other chronic conditions such as heart diseases going into adulthood (Benassi et al., 2021). Children should have access to healthy diet and a regular physical activity to help reduce the risk to chronic conditions (Verjans-Janssen et al., 2018). The implementation of nutritional and physical activity program is the most effective intervention to help reduce childhood obesity incidences (Benassi et al., 2021). The choice to implement this intervention among school-going children aged 5-18 years is informed of the fact that children this age spend most of their day time in school, which provides an appropriate setting to implement the intervention.

One of the peer-reviewed research article which supports the implementation of school-based physical activity and nutritional interventions to reduce incidence of childhood obesity was published by Verjans-Janssen et al. (2018). This systematic review was aimed at establishing the effectiveness of primary school-based nutritional interventions, physical activity and sedentary behavior towards addressing the body mass index among children at school. The systematic search was conducted, and 10 randomized controlled studies among other research designs were evaluation (Verjans-Janssen et al., 2018). The results revealed that significance of the school-based program towards ensuring the children’s BMI is within normal range, and encouraged direct parental involvement to ensure these program recommendations are implemented at home too. Based on the hierarchy of evidence, the article by Verjans-Janssen et al. (2018) provides a Level I evidence because it is a systematic review of all relevant randomized controlled trials (RCT).

References

Benassi, L., Blažević, I., & Janković, D. (2021). Physical activity and nutrition of children in primary education. Economic Research, 2021, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2021.1974307 (Links to an external site.)
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Verjans-Janssen, S., van de Kolk, I., Van Kann, D., Kremers, S., & Gerards, S. (2018). Effectiveness of school-based physical activity and nutrition interventions with direct parental involvement on children’s BMI and energy balance-related behaviors – A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 13(9), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204560