Circus Activities as a Health Intervention for Children, Youth, and Adolescents: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Circus activities are emerging as an engaging and unique health intervention. This scoping review summarises the evidence on this topic for children and young people aged up to 24 years to map (a) participant characteristics, (b) intervention characteristics, (c) health and wellbeing outcomes, and (d) to identify evidence gaps. Using scoping review methodology, a systematic search of five databases and Google Scholar was conducted up to August 2022 for peer-reviewed and grey literature. Fifty-seven of 897 sources of evidence were included (42 unique interventions). Most interventions were undertaken with school-aged participants; however, four studies included participants with age ranges over 15 years. Interventions targeted both general populations and those with defined biopsychosocial challenges (e.g., cerebral palsy, mental illness, or homelessness). Most interventions utilised three or more circus disciplines and were undertaken in naturalistic leisure settings. Dosage could be calculated for 15 of the 42 interventions (range one-96 h). Improvements in physical and/or social-emotional outcomes were reported for all studies. There is emerging evidence of positive health outcomes resulting from circus activities used in general populations and those with defined biopsychosocial challenges. Future research should focus on detailed reporting of intervention elements and increasing the evidence base in preschool-aged children and within populations with the greatest need.

Development and Evaluation of a Framework for Authentic Online Co‐Design: Partnership‐Focussed Principles‐Driven Online Co‐Design

“…The current study was conducted in the context of developing a community circus training programme for children, families and coaches to optimise outcomes for children born preterm. Prior publications describing the information gathering phase of this study are available [ 30 , 31 ]. This study received ethical approval from The Royal Children's Hospital Human Research and Ethics Committee (Ethics approval number: HREC/15/RCHM/110).…”

Partnership-focussed Principles-driven Online co-Design (P-POD): a mixed-methods evaluation of a novel online co-design process

“…Circus is one possible intervention that could improve physical activity and participation. A scoping review by the authors [36] describes how circus activities show promise for improvements in physical and social-emotional outcomes in paediatric populations with biopsychosocial challenges including developmental delay and autism, both of which are prevalent in children born preterm. A community-based circus activity that targets physical activity participation for children born preterm is a novel intervention and applying a research co-design process to ensure that the intervention meets the needs of key stakeholders is important for successful implementation.…”

Feasibility study of a novel co-designed online training program for circus coaches working with preschool-aged children born preterm

“…The stakeholder groups included parents of children born extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks' gestation), paediatric clinicians, and circus coaches. Circus was chosen as the community-based physical activity of interest due to its potential to improve physical and social outcomes for varied paediatric populations, including those with CP and developmental delay [21]. Stakeholders proposed that a key strategy to increase participation for children born preterm is for providers (such as coaches and organisations) to be understanding of the preterm experience and have specialised knowledge in inclusion and optimising developmental outcomes.…”