Response to Daly-Smith et al.'s commentary on 'The Daily Mile makes primary school children more active, less sedentary and improves their fitness and body composition: a quasi-experimental pilot study'

Citation

Chesham RA, Booth JN, Sweeney EL, Ryde GC, Gorely T, Brooks NE & Moran CN (2019) Response to Daly-Smith et al.'s commentary on 'The Daily Mile makes primary school children more active, less sedentary and improves their fitness and body composition: a quasi-experimental pilot study'. Commentary on: Daly-Smith A, Morris JL, Hobbs M, McKenna J. Commentary on a recent article on the effects of the ‘daily mile’ on physical activity, fitness and body composition: addressing key limitations. BMC Medicine, 2019, 17:96. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1335-4. BMC Medicine, 17 (1), Art. No.: 97. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1336-3

Abstract
We thank Daly-Smith et al. for taking the time to read the results of our pilot research study, describing it as an important and welcome contribution. Nonetheless, the authors argue six points against our conclusion. We contend that we addressed three of these points in our original discussion and disagree with their remaining points. Overall, their Commentary adds little to the topic of research into the Daily Mile™ that we had not already raised in our discussion. Additionally, they attribute statements to us that we did not make and ignore the raising of key issues in our original article. Given this, we stand by our original peer-reviewed conclusion that introducing the Daily Mile™ to the primary school day appears to be an effective intervention for increasing levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity, reducing sedentary time, increasing physical fitness and improving body composition, and that these findings have relevance for teachers, policy-makers, public health practitioners and health researchers.

Keywords
General Medicine

Journal
BMC Medicine: Volume 17, Issue 1

• Published version