Abstract
The preschool age seems to be decisive for the development of motor skills and proba-bly the most promising time-window in relation to improvement of motor skills. This trial investi-gates the effect of an intensive structured intervention to improve motor skills in 3–6-year-old preschool children. A total of 471 Danish preschool children participated in a cluster randomized controlled trial. The intervention was to enhance motor skills, including predefined minimum criteria. Motor skills were measured using the Motor Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) (total and three domains) at baseline and 6-, 18-, and 30-months post-intervention. The effect was estimated by multilevel linear regression with preschool and child included as random effects and ad-justed for baseline values. Effect estimates were mainly positive at 6 months, but negative at 30 months with very few statistically significant estimates. In preschools with baseline motor skills scores below average, there was a tendency towards a larger improvement in the intervention group. Future interventions and research should focus on clusters with poor motor skills, as there is larger room for improvement. It remains to be seen whether the intervention can influence general well-being, physical activity, and self-perceived competence, both short-and long-term.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 12272 |
| Tidsskrift | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
| Vol/bind | 18 |
| Udgave nummer | 23 |
| Antal sider | 18 |
| ISSN | 1661-7827 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - dec. 2021 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:Funding: The primary funder is the TRYG Foundation (TrygFonden smba, Hummeltoftevej 49, DK-2830 Virum, Denmark. Tel.: +45-26-08-00, [email protected], www.trygfonden.dk), which has funded DKK 8,500,000 (EUR 1,133,333) from grant #114536. Furthermore, the project has been supported by The Danish Chiropractic Foundation (Regionernes Lønnings og Takst Nævn, c/o Danske Regioner, Dampfærgevej 22, Postbox 2593, 2100 København Ø, Denmark. Tel.: +45-35-29-81-00) with DKK 1,484,000 (EUR 197,867) from grant # 108-01/431, and the IMK Foundation (IMK Almene Fond, c/o advokat Erhardt Gram, Vester Voldgade 90, 1552 København V., Denmark) with DKK 588,000 (EUR 78,400) (no grant number). None of these foundations have been involved in the study design, and they will neither partake in the execution of the study, the analyses and interpretation nor the decisions about publication.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the following for funding the MiPS Study DK and for funding individual researchers: The TRYG Foundation, The Danish Chiropractic Research Foundation, The IMK Foundation, University of Southern Denmark, and The SvendborgPro-ject by the Municipality of Svendborg. Finally: we would like to thank children and parents participating in the MiPS Study DK, as well as preschool staff and all other persons involved in the MiPS Study DK.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.