Evaluating the scale- up of the Play Active programme for children’s physical activity in early childhood education and care services: a national type III hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial protocol

Abstract

Introduction Physical activity is crucial for young children’s health and development. Many young children do not meet the recommended 3 hours of daily physical activity, including 60 min of energetic play. Early childhood education and care (ECEC/childcare) is a key setting to intervene to improve children’s physical activity. The Play Active programme is a scalable evidence-informed ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to improve educators’ physical activity-related practices.

Methods and analysis This hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation trial will use a quasi-experimental repeated measures design to assess the real-world effectiveness of Play Active’s scalable implementation support strategies in helping ECEC services adopt the practices included in the Play Active policy. Secondary aims will examine changes in educator-reported and device-measured children’s physical activity; assess the sustainability of the programme; identify effective dissemination strategies; assess cost-effectiveness; and involve comprehensive process evaluation. All ECEC services in Western Australia (n=776), Queensland (n=1744) and South Australia (n=445) will be invited to participate. Data will be collected at baseline, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 months.

Dissemination: This real-world trial of Play Active is vital for understanding its implementation in practice
and to generate evidence for further scale- up and roll-out nationally. Key findings will be disseminated to stakeholders, collaborators, policy- makers as well as families and practitioners in the ECEC sector.

DOI: 10.1136/ bmjopen-2025-103968