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Children in Wales Annual Conference 2018.

The Whole Child: The importance of getting it right

ACTIVE Children Through Individual Vouchers Evaluation (ACTIVE)

Background

The physical activity levels of young people are declining.

This means that teenagers are not receiving the health

benefits of an active lifestyle and with heart disease,

diabetes, cancers and mental health hitting the headlines
more than ever, it is essential that we adopt a proactive

method of tackling inactivity.

What we did

The ACTIVE Project, funded by the British Heart
Foundation, gave teenagers in Swansea £20 of vouchers

per month to spend on activities of their choice. This

empowered them and allowed them to make their own
choices regarding physical activity. They also had access

to a peer mentor scheme and a support worker from the

University.

What we found

The ACTIVE Project reduced declines in fitness

and reduced instances of high blood pressure. The

intervention empowered teenagers to increase their
activity and the vouchers were a successful aspect of the

intervention. However, more needs to happen to improve

transport to activities, bring activities local to teenagers
and improve knowledge of what is available.

How can our research help you

We have since asked teenagers and stakeholders to have conversations about what young people felt still

stopped them from being active and asked these stakeholders to start making small changes to their delivery.

It was evident that a lack of information, transport ease, and cost still played a major part in being active.

There is a need for a large community and cultural change, which this trial went someway to provoking but

longer sustained engagement with teenagers will create long-term behavioural change. For further information

on ACTIVE contact Michaela James, ACTIVE Trial Manager, Swansea University M.L.James@Swansea.ac.uk. For

updates on the project follow ACTIVE on Twitter @ActiveProject_

NCPHWR is funded by

The National Centre for Population Health & Wellbeing Research

www.ncphwr.org.uk