Closing the Gap Between Classroom-Based Physical Activity Intervention Adoption and Fidelity in Low-Resource Schools

Abstract

The adoption of classroom-based physical activity interventions in elementary schools is nearly universal (92%), but fewer than 22% of teachers who implement activity breaks achieve a dose of 10 min/day. Dissemination and implementation science frameworks provide a systematic approach to identifying and overcoming barriers likely to impede successful adoption and fidelity of evidence-based interventions. This review highlights the development and subsequent tailoring of a classroom-based physical activity intervention, Interrupting Prolonged sitting with ACTivity (InPACT), for delivery in low-resource schools using implementation science frameworks focused on equity. Unlike most classroom physical activity interventions, tailored InPACT includes a suite of implementation strategies (methods or techniques that support adoption, implementation, and sustainment of a program or practice) and, thus, has been designed for dissemination. These strategies were focused on increasing teacher self-efficacy and reducing multilevel implementation barriers in low-resource schools to promote intervention fidelity, effectiveness, and sustainment.

A Novel Policy Alignment and Enhancement Process to Improve Sustainment of School-Based Physical Activity Programming

“…The primary users of curriculum guides are teachers whereas the primary users of school improvement plans are school leadership teams (i.e., administrators, teachers, counselors, and individuals with executive leadership authority). Emphasis in both the curriculum guide and school improvement plan were placed on sustaining classroom PA through the continued implementation of the InPACT intervention, as teacher feedback for this program was overwhelmingly positive and intervention-context fit within the ISD was high [23,24].…”