scholarly journals Sex/gender considerations in school-based interventions to promote children’s and adolescents’ physical activity

Author(s):  
Annegret Schlund ◽  
Anne K. Reimers ◽  
Jens Bucksch ◽  
Stephanie Linder ◽  
Yolanda Demetriou

AbstractPhysical inactivity is an increasing problem worldwide, but especially among girls. This difference by gender increases with age. Schools serve virtually all young people in most parts of the world and can thus play an important role in promoting physical activity. In this systematic review, we qualitatively and comprehensively assessed the treatment of sex/gender considerations (from study design to discussion of results) in 56 school-based intervention studies aiming to promote physical activity in children and adolescents. In all 56 studies, the factor of sex/gender was only rudimentarily considered, regardless of the effectiveness of the intervention. The meta-analysis revealed that the interventions had significant but relatively small effects with both girls and boys, along with high heterogeneity. To obtain better information about effective strategies that promote physical activity for both girls and boys equally, researchers conducting future intervention studies should pay attention to sex/gender differences and report on how they take this factor into account.

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 101770
Author(s):  
Anne Kelso ◽  
Stephanie Linder ◽  
Anne K. Reimers ◽  
Stefanie J. Klug ◽  
Marianna Alesi ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Cox ◽  
Stuart J. Fairclough ◽  
Maria-Christina Kosteli ◽  
Robert J. Noonan

Abstract Background It has been reported that boys’ and girls’ physical activity (PA) levels decline throughout adolescence. Boys are at risk of physical inactivity during adolescence; however, in intervention research, they are an under-represented group relative to girls. It is suggested that the school environment may be central to developing interventions that support adolescents in meeting the current PA guidelines. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of school-based physical activity interventions for improving muscular fitness (MF) in adolescent males. Methods This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the preferred reporting systems for meta-analyses guidelines and was registered on PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42018091023). Eligible studies were published in English within peer-reviewed articles. Searches were conducted in three databases, with an additional grey literature search in Google Scholar. Studies investigating MF outcomes were included. Results There were 43 data sets identified across 11 studies, from seven countries. Overall methodological quality of the studies was moderate-to-strong. Interventions targeting MF evidenced a small-to-medium effect (g = 0.32, CI 0.17, 0.48, p < 0.00). Subgroup analyses of MF delivery method resulted in small-to-medium effects: upper limb MF measures (g = 0.28, 95% CI − 0.02, 0.58, p = 0.07), lower limb MF measures (g = 0.28, 95% CI 0.09, 0.68, p = 0.03), combined MF activities (g = 0.24, 95% CI − 0.04 to 0.49, p = 0.05), plyometric activities (g = 0.39, 95% CI 0.09, 0.68, p = 0.01), body weight (g = 0.27, 95% CI − 0.10, 0.65, p = 0.15), and traditional MF methods (g = 0.43, 95% CI 0.09, 0.78, p = 0.01). Conclusions School-based interventions which aimed to increase MF outcomes in adolescent boys demonstrated small-to-moderate effects. Traditional and plyometric methods of resistance training appear to be the most effective form of PA delivery in adolescent males. More quality research is required to assess the impact of MF delivered in the school environment to inform future intervention design.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Cox ◽  
Stuart J. Fairclough ◽  
Maria-Christina Kosteli ◽  
Robert J. Noonan

Background: It has been reported that boys’ and girls’ physical activity (PA) levels decline throughout adolescence. Boys are at risk of physical inactivity during adolescence however, in intervention research they are an under-represented group relative to girls. It is suggested that the school environment may be central to developing interventions that support adolescents in meeting the current PA guidelines. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the efficacy of school-based interventions to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and muscle and bone strengthening exercise (MBSE) outcomes in adolescent males. Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the preferred reporting systems for meta-analyses guidelines and was registered on PROSPERO (Registration number: CRD42018091023). Eligible studies were published in English within peer-reviewed articles. Searches were conducted in three databases, with an additional grey literature search in Google Scholar. Studies with MVPA and MBSE as outcomes were included.Results: There were 51 data sets identified across 15 studies, from eight countries. Overall methodological quality of the studies was moderate to strong. Significant, small effect sizes were identified following a pooled analysis of all studies which aimed to increase MVPA and MBSE outcomes (g = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.37, P = &lt;.001). Interventions targeting MVPA were ineffective (g = -0.09, 95% CI -0.72, -0.53, P = 0.77). Interventions targeting MBSE evidenced a small to medium effect (g = 0.27, CI 0.16, 0.39, P = &lt;.001). Sub-group analyses of MBSE delivery method resulted in small to medium effects: Upper limb MBSE (g = 0.23, 95% CI 0.03, 0.43, p = 0.02), lower limb MBSE (g = 0.21, 95% CI 0.09, 0.33, p &lt;0.00), combined resistance activities (g = 0.22, 95% CI 0.05 – 0.39, p = &lt;0.00), plyometric activities (g = 0.39, 95% CI 0.09, 0.68, p = 0.01), body weight (g = 0.21, 95% CI -0.00, 0.44, p = 0.05), and traditional MBSE methods (g = 0.43, 95% CI -0.09, 0.78, p = 0.01).Conclusions: School-based interventions which aim to increase MVPA in adolescent males were not effective. Interventions focused on MBSE demonstrated small to moderate effects. Traditional and plyometric methods of MBSE appear to be the most effective form of PA delivery in adolescent males. More quality research is required to assess the impact of MBSE delivered in the school environment in order to inform future intervention design.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Pfledderer ◽  
Ryan D. Burns ◽  
Wonwoo Byun ◽  
Russell L. Carson ◽  
Gregory J. Welk ◽  
...  

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 396
Author(s):  
Purificación Cerrato-Carretero ◽  
Raúl Roncero-Martín ◽  
Juan D. Pedrera-Zamorano ◽  
Fidel López-Espuela ◽  
Luis M. Puerto-Parejo ◽  
...  

Preventive actions and potential obesity interventions for children are mainly researched throughout the school period, either as part of the school curricula or after regular school hours, via interventions mostly lasting less than 12 months. We aimed to perform a meta-analysis on randomized controlled clinical trials to evaluate the evidence of the efficacy of long-term school-based interventions in the management of childhood obesity in terms of BMI from a dietary and physical activity-based approach. Eleven randomized controlled clinical trials were examined using the random effects model, and the results showed that there were no significant effects associated with physical activity + nutrition intervention in school children aged 6–12 years, with a pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) (95% CI) of −0.00 (−0.05, 0.04). No effects were observed after subgroup analysis based on the intervention length. The findings from our study indicate that long-term school-based interventions on physical activity and dietary habits received by children aged 6–12 years seem to have no effect on BMI. However, the promotion of such interventions should not be discouraged, as they promote additional positive health outcomes for other domains of children’s health.


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