OBJECTIVE: A randomized controlled pilot study to test the hypothesis that increasing preschool children's outdoor free play time increases their daily physical activity levels. METHODS: Physical activity was assessed by accelerometers for four consecutive school days in thirty-two Latino children (3.6 +/- 0.5 years) attending a preschool for low-income families. After two days of baseline physical activity assessment, participants were randomly assigned to an intervention (RECESS; n = 17) or control (CON; n = 15) group. The RECESS group received two additional 30-minute periods of outdoor free play time per day for two days. The CON group followed their normal classroom schedule. Between group differences in physical activity variables were tested with a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between groups in changes from baseline in average total daily (CON 48.2 +/- 114.5; RECESS 58.2 +/- 74.6) and during school day (CON 64.6 +/- 181.9; RECESS 59.7 +/- 79.1) counts per minute, or total daily (CON 0.4 +/- 1.3; RECESS 0.3 +/- 0.8) and during school day (CON 0.6 +/- 2.1; RECESS 0.5 +/- 0.8) percent of time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: Substantially increasing preschoolers' outdoor free play time did not increase their physical activity levels.

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