Physical and social environmental interventions.
OtherTo be determined in the co-creation groups at the five sites (Denmark, Germany, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands)
Enrolling by Invitation
NCT Number: NCT07136376
B-challenged: Co-creating Physical and Social Environments to Promote Children's Active Outdoor Play
BACKGROUND An alarmingly low number of children meet public health guidelines for physical activity and healthy dietary behaviours, and are at increased risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases. Importantly, this burden is already unequally distributed at an early age. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours are driven by complex mechanisms that differ across boys and girls growing up under different socio-economic circumstances. Outdoor play is an important contributor to children's levels of physical activity. Yet, children growing up in underprivileged neighbourhoods play less outside due to limited access to safe and attractive outdoor spaces and appropriate and affordable after school activities than other children. At the same time, today's children have abundant access to inexpensive energy-dense foods and online sedentary activities.
AIM B-challenged aims to tackle the complexity of equality in children's active outdoor play and healthy dietary behaviours by co-creating, implementing and evaluating interventions in the physical and social environmental together with children growing up in socio-economically underprivileged neighbourhoods and other key actors.
APPROACH B-challenged introduces a multi-actor, inter-sectorial democratic approach in five European countries (Denmark, Germany, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands), including all key actors (e.g. children, parents, teachers, policy makers). The investigators in B-Challenged will closely collaborate with all key actors, conduct analyses in European cohort data and consider the broader system (e.g. neighbourhood, family) as well as previous lessons-learned. Therewith, B-challenged aims at structural, relevant and feasible improvements in the physical and social environment promoting children's active outdoor play and dietary behaviours. B-challenged will impact all key actors in the selected neighbourhoods and far beyond through disseminating protocols and recommendations (research and policy) for upscaling the B-challenged approach.
Enrolling by Invitation
Interested in participating?
Request InfoKey information
Age range
6 year–12 year
Sex eligibility
All sexes
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Not applicable
Primary location
University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
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Who can participate
Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
child co-researchers:
- Living in a underserved urban neighbourhood
- Aged 9-12 years
Inclusion criteria
children participating in the effect evaluation:
- Living in the same underserved neighbourhood as the child co-researchers
- Aged 6-12 years
Inclusion criteria
adult actors:
- Based on results of the actor mapping (including adult actors interview 1 and adult actors recruitment form)
Treatment and study plan
Primary outcomes
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Time spent in outdoor play
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation).
Time spent in outdoor play is assessed by a child-questionnaire (based on HBSC questionnaire, US national Kids Survey, and nationwide survey from Norway) and covers active travel, organised outdoor activities and unorganised outdoor play.
Duration reported using 6 response options (longer duration of outdoor play contributing to a healthier lifestyle): 0-½ hour; ½-1 hour; 1-1 ½ hour; 1 ½-2 hours; and More than 2 hours.
Secondary outcomes
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Frequency of fruit consumption during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire item on the frequency of consumption of fruits during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of fruit consumption contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
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Frequency of vegetable consumption during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire item on the frequency of consumption of vegetables during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of vegetable consumption contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
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Frequency of consumption of sweets during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire item on the frequency of consumption of sweets (candy or chocolate) during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of consumption of sweets contributes to a more unhealthy lifestyle.
-
Frequency of consumption of crisps and other salty snacks during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire items on the frequency of consumption of crisps and other salty snacks during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of crisps and other salty snacks consumption contributes to a more unhealthy lifestyle.
-
Frequency of consumption of coke or other soft drinks that contain sugar during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire items on the frequency of consumption of coke or other soft drinks that contain sugar during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of consumption of coke or other soft drinks that contain sugar contributes to a more unhealthy lifestyle.
-
Frequency of consumption of fast-food (pizza, kebab, burgers) during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire items on the frequency of consumption of fast-food (pizza, kebab, burgers) during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of fast-food (pizza, kebab, burgers) consumption contributes to a more unhealthy lifestyle.
-
Frequency of consumption of energy drinks (such as Red Bull) during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire items on the frequency of consumption of energy drinks (such as Red Bull) during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of energy drinks (such as Red Bull) consumption contributes to a more unhealthy lifestyle.
-
Frequency of consumption of water during outdoor play, assessed by:
Time frame: Baseline and 12 months follow up (i.e., after intervention implementation)
Child-questionnaire items on the frequency of consumption of water during outdoor play, partially based on the HBSC questionnaire, the US national Kids Survey and a nationwide survey from Norway.
Frequency reported on a 7-point scale: Never Less than once a week; Once a week; 2-4 days a week; 5-6 days a week; Once a day, every day; Every day, more than once.
Higher frequency of water consumption contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
Sponsors and collaborators
Lead sponsor
Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc
Other
Collaborators
- Fundación Instituto Investigación Sanitaria Aragón, Zaragoza, Spain
- Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland
- University of Bremen, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology, Bremen, Germany
- University of Southern Denmark
Registry information
Official study title
B-challenged: A Multi-actor Approach in Creating Safe and Attractive Physical and Social Environments to Promote Children's Active Outdoor Play and Healthy Dietary Behaviours
Acronym: B-challenged
Important dates
- Study start
- 2024
- Primary completion
- 2027
- Study completion
- 2027
- First posted
- Aug 22, 2025
- Registry last updated
- Aug 22, 2025
OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.
View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.