Measurement information
Measurements
We will be visiting your school 3 times over the course of the study. Each visit will have a similar format. Exact schedules are decided on a school by school basis after discussion with you; however a typical day would run as follows:
- 8.45 Fieldworkers arrive
- Fieldworkers liaise with staff and set up equipment
- 9.00 Registration
- 9.10 Questionnaire
- Fieldworkers complete questionnaire with whole class
- 10.30 Break time
- 10.45 Measurements
- Children visit the measuring room one by one to have weight, waist & height measures taken and be fitted with an accelerometer.
- 12.00 Lunch
- 13.00 In some larger schools measurements may continue after lunch.
In the classroom:
Questionnaire – The pupils will be guided through the completion of a comprehensive questionnaire by one of our team. This touches on topics such as eating habits, family influence and activity levels and use of time outside of school. We won’t be sharing the answers to these questionnaires with the school or parents and they will be stored securely and used for the research only.
In a private room:
- Weight
- Height
- Waist measurement
- Activity belt fitted
Prior to taking any measurements, the pupils will be asked whether they are willing for us to do this. All pupils are free to choose not to participate in any or all of the measurements and are able to opt in or out at each of our 3 visits. Once measurements are taken they are recorded without the child seeing and the data is stored securely within the university. We will not make any comment on any of the measurements to the pupil or to any other person.
Weight – In order to get an accurate measurement the pupils are asked to take off their shoes and any thick jumpers and stand on the scales.
Height – The pupils are asked to keep their shoes off, and stand straight against the measure with their feet flat on the floor. If they have their hair up, we may ask them to take it down, but this is entirely their choice. It not, we will measure them ‘as is’.
Waist – The pupils do not need to take their top off, but may be asked to remove any outerwear such as a thick jumper or a cardigan and leave their t-shirt/vest on. We use a tape measure to measure their waist twice. We will help them to find their hip and rib cage, and ask them to point to them so we can see where we need to measure.
Activity belts – We will fit consenting pupils with an activity belt (accelerometer), to be worn for 6 days. The belt is worn outside clothing around their waist, with the red box on the right hip.