Document Type
Article
Abstract
Background
To examine the efficacy of providing free summer day camp (SDC) to children from low-income families on changes in physical activity, time spent sedentary, and screentime.
Methods
Across three summers (2021–2023), we randomized 422 children (8.2 ± 1.5yrs, 48% female, 51% Black, 69% at or below 200% Federal Poverty Level, 30% food insecure) from seven elementary schools to one of two conditions: summer as usual (control, n = 199) or free SDC for 8-10wks (intervention, n = 223). Accelerometry measured activity (moderate-to-vigorous PA [MVPA] and time spent sedentary) and parent daily report of screentime were measured using a 14-day in April/May (school) and July (summer). Intent-to-treat analysis examined changes in behaviors between school and summer. Exposure models examined differences in behaviors during summer on days when children attended vs. did not attend a SDC in both intervention and control children.
Results
Intent-to-treat models indicated in the summer children in the intervention group accumulated + 15.0 min/day (95CI 12.0 to 18.0) more MVPA and spent − 29.7 min/day (-37.7 to -21.8) less time sedentary and − 14.1 min/day (-23.9 to -4.3) on screens, compared to children in the control group. Exposure models indicated, on days children attended SDCs, they accumulated more MVPA (+ 26.1 min/day, 22.5 to 29.7), and spent less time sedentary (-63.5 min/day, -72.9 to -54.1) and on screens (-9.5 min/day, -20.1 to 1.2), compared to days when children did not attend SDC.
Conclusions
Policies targeting upstream structural factors, such as universal access to existing community SDCs during summer, could lead to improvements in health behaviors among children from low-income households.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Volume 22, 2025.
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
APA Citation
Beets, M. W., Burkart, S., Pfledderer, C. D., Adams, E., Weaver, R. G., Armstrong, B., Brazendale, K., Zhu, X., Chen, B., & McLain, A. (2025). Impact of free summer day camp on physical activity behaviors and screentime of elementary-age children from low-income households: A randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 22, Article 159.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-025-01852-2