Comment on Marsigliante et al. Effects on Children's Physical and Mental Well-Being of a Physical-Activity-Based School Intervention Program: A Randomized Study

Authors

Raphiel Murden
Jon Agley
Lilian Golzarri-Arroyo
Armando Peña
Danny Valdez
Abu Bakkar Siddique
Moonseong Heo
David B Allison

Language

English

Publication Date

12-1-2023

Journal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

DOI

10.3390/ijerph20237131

PMID

38063561

PMCID

PMC10706361

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

12-1-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

We conducted a critical review of the article “Effects on Children’s Physical and Mental Well-Being of a Physical-Activity-Based School Intervention Program: A Randomized Study”, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2023 as part of the Special Issue “Psychomotricity and Physical Education in School Health”. We identified multiple mistakes in the statistical analyses applied. First, the authors claim to have found a statistically significant association between the proposed intervention and change in body composition (body mass index (BMI) percentiles, relative fat mass, and BMI classes) by way of exhibiting differences in nominal significance between the pre- and post-intervention changes within the control and intervention groups, instead of exhibiting a significant difference between groups. Furthermore, the analysis described fails to account for clustering and nesting in the data. The reporting of the statistical methods and results include multiple elements that are variously incorrect, incoherent, or impossible. Revised statistical analyses are proposed which can render the study’s methods valid and its results substantiated, whereas the current methods and results are invalid and unsubstantiated, respectively.

Keywords

Child, Humans, Public Health, Exercise, Body Mass Index, Schools, physical activity, pediatric well-being, randomized clinical trials, clustered randomized trials

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Murden, Raphiel; Agley, Jon; Golzarri-Arroyo, Lilian; et al., "Comment on Marsigliante et al. Effects on Children's Physical and Mental Well-Being of a Physical-Activity-Based School Intervention Program: A Randomized Study" (2023). Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications. 225.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/staff_pub/225