Effect of a governmentally-led physical activity program on motor skills in young children attending child care centers: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Table 1 Child and parental baseline characteristics according to study group

Characteristic	Control	Intervention	Total sample
n	335	313	648
Gender, male, % (n)	49 (164)	51 (171)	51 (335)
Age, mean ± SD, y (n)	3.3 ± 0.6 (335)	3.4 ± 0.6 (313)	3.3 ± 0.6 (648)
Weight, mean ± SD, kg (n)	15.6 ± 2.2 (314)	15.8 ± 2.3 (283)	15.7 ± 2.2 (597)
Height, mean ± SD, cm (n)	97.9 ± 6.5 (308)	98.1 ± 6.4 (283)	98.0 ± 6.4 (591)
BMI, mean ± SD, kg/m² (n)	16.2 ± 1.2 (308)	16.3 ± 1.4 (283)	16.3 ± 1.3 (591)
Overweight children, % (n) ^a	11 (34)	15.7 (44)	13.2 (78)
Parental migrant status, % (n) ^b	61.3 (146)	54.7 (145)	57.9 (291)
Parental low educational level, % (n) ^c	15.8 (35)	19 (49)	17.5 (84)

^a according to the International Obesity Task Force criteria.
^b migrant status was defined as at least one parent born outside of Switzerland.
^c parental low educational level was defined as at least one parent with 9 years or less of education.
No significant differences were observed in baseline characteristics and outcome variables between the control and the intervention groups (all p > 0.09).

ISSN: 1479-5868