Health and Activity of Pupils in the Primary Years (HAPPY) Study

Overview 

The HAPPY study is investigating how school environments can help to encourage children be physically active during the school day and improve their overall health and wellbeing. This project aims to raise public awareness of the importance of health promotion in schools and highlight the support that schools need to create active environments for all of their pupils. A whole-school approach to improve the wellbeing of all children will help towards reducing inequalities in health and education.

About the HAPPY study

Why is this research important?

Increasing physical activity has many health benefits including improved fitness and mental health and wellbeing. Embedding these healthy behaviours in childhood may benefit health in adolescence and adulthood. Current government guidelines suggest that children should be engaging in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, of which 30 minutes should be done during the school day. Less than half of children in England meet the recommended targets. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a Schools Toolkit which identifies six criteria for schools to create active environments that can help children increase their physical activity throughout the school day and help towards reaching the recommended guidelines of daily physical activity.

The WHO’s six criteria for active school environments are:

1. Quality physical education

2. Active travel

3. Physical activity opportunities before and after school

4. Opportunities for physical activity at breaks and lunch

5. Active classrooms

6. Physical activity for those with additional needs

There is currently limited evidence to show how school environments, based on the WHO’s six criteria, encourage children to be physically active, and how this may contribute to improving children’s health and educational attainment.

The aim of the HAPPY study is to raise awareness of the importance of health promotion in schools and highlight the support that schools need to create active environments for all their pupils. A whole-school approach to improve the wellbeing of all children will help reduce inequalities in health and education.

Who is funding this research?

The HAPPY study is being funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), School for Public Health Research (SPHR). The NIHR SPHR is a partnership between the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter and Sheffield; Imperial College London; The London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; the LiLaC collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster; Fuse, The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, a collaboration between Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities; and PHRESH, the Public Health RESearch for Health consortium, a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele.

The study is supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC).

Full ethical approval has been granted for this study by Imperial College London Research Ethics Committee (ICREC), Reference: 6800895

How is this study being carried out?

Phase 1: School Survey

We are distributing a school survey to all Greater London state-funded primary schools. The survey will ask questions about the school’s current physical activity policies and practices based on the WHO’s six criteria. By distributing our survey to all Greater London state-funded primary schools allows us to capture differences in schools environments on a large scale.

Phase 2: Cohort study

In our cohort study, we are recruiting schools across Greater London and inviting Year 3 children (and their parent/guardian) to participate in our study. Participation involves measuring children’s physical activity through a wrist-worn activity watch, and bio-impedance measures. Parents will be asked to complete a short questionnaire about their and their child’s health. This will allow to us to better understand the impact of active schools environments to improving children’s health and related outcomes. Completion of the school survey in Phase 1 does not assume participation in our cohort study. Schools will be contacted separately about taking part in our cohort study. 

We aim to recruit 1000 children in total. As a thank you, children receive a certificate and small incentive. We will also provide schools with feedback about the physical activity and health of children at their school.