The impact of an after-school physical activity program on health-related fitness of mother/daughter pairs: CASPIAN study

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of summer breaks on the body composition and cardiovascular fitness of elementary school children who participated in a multi-year school-based physical activity intervention. Participants were 404 children who had their height and weight measured and completed the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) during physical education classes at the beginning and end of the school year for three consecutive years. To examine the effects of time on health-related fitness data, general linear mixed effects models were employed. The results indicate that there was a trend toward an increase in body mass index (BMI) after the summer of 2015 (p = 0.958), and a significant increase in BMI after the summer of 2016 compared to time point 1 (p < 0.001). For PACER laps, there were trends toward decreases in PACER laps after the summers of 2015 (p = 0.515) and 2016 (p = 0.073). Summer breaks tended to attenuate the BMI and PACER lap improvements that were observed during the intervention. While school-based physical activity programming has had some successes in improving health-related fitness markers, the loss of these improvements over the summer is of concern to both practitioners and researchers. It is clear that additional efforts are needed to limit obesogenic behaviors during the summer months.

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Investigating the Impact of Virtual Reality and Gamification on Improving Physical Activities in School

10.21203/rs.3.rs-47976/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Reza Roshanpour ◽

Mohammad Hazegh Nikroo

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Virtual Reality ◽

Elementary Students ◽

Physical Activity Program ◽

Physical Competence ◽

Critical Areas ◽

Activity Program ◽

Physical Activity Environments ◽

Diverse Groups ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background: The rise of obesity creates a critical health problem in childhood which can establish obesity in adulthood. It is significant in the first years of life to participate in physical activity program. In other words, children have to perform physical activity for preventing obesity and toward reducing obesity in adulthood. In this regard, it seems to be important in elementary schools. In this regard, interventions were used to perform physical activity. We have utilized virtual reality and gamification as an intervention to increase motivation for exerting physical activity in elementary school. In reality, three critical areas have been identified to enhance quality physical education program include Promoting intrinsic motivation, enhancing perceived physical competence, and creating a mastery-oriented physical-activity environment.Methods: Mixed quantitative and qualitative study to specify the effects of integration gamification and virtual reality in the physical activity program was used. Analyses were conducted using IBM Statistics SPSS 25.0 software. Also, we used independent-samples T-test to compare results.Results: Total of 25 elementary students participated in our study. This study performed about combination of gamification and virtual reality games. we divided all the students into diverse groups. Results indicated the use of virtual reality and gamification could enhance motivation in children to perform physical activity in school.Conclusion: Virtual reality technology and gamification on physical activity environments had a positive effect on the motivation of elementary students. virtual reality and gamification on motivation leads students to achieve higher levels of engagement in performing physical activity.

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Effect of the physical activity program on the treatment of resistant hypertension in primary care

Primary Health Care Research & Development ◽

10.1017/s1463423618000154 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 575-583 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Piotr J. Kruk ◽

Michał Nowicki

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Blood Pressure ◽

Primary Care ◽

Resistant Hypertension ◽

Lifestyle Modification ◽

Heart Association ◽

Pressure Control ◽

Physical Activity Program ◽

Activity Program ◽

The Impact

AbstractBackgroundRegular physical activity is widely recommended for patients with arterial hypertension as an essential component of lifestyle modification. Much less is known about the impact of physical exercise on the management of treatment of resistant hypertension (RH). The aim was to assess the effect of physical activity program intensified by mobile phone text reminders on blood pressure control in subjects with RH managed in the primary care.MethodsIn total, 53 patients with primary hypertension were qualified, including 27 who met the criteria for RH and 26 with well-controlled hypertension (WCH). Ambulatory 24-h blood pressure was monitored and body composition evaluated with bioimpedance and habitual physical activity profile was determined continuously over 72 h with accelerometer. All measurements were performed at baseline and after three and six months. The patients were asked to modify their lifestyle according to American Heart Association Guidelines that included regular aerobic physical activity tailored to individual needs.FindingsPhysical activity in RH increased significantly after six months compared with control subjects (P=0.001). Office systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in the RH group decreased significantly after three months but after six months only office DBP remained significantly lower. After three months 24-h SBP decreased by 3.1±11 mmHg (P=0.08) and DBP by 2.0±6 mmHg (P=0.17) in RH, whereas in WCH respective changes were +1.2±10 and −0.3±6 mmHg. After six months 24-h BP changes were similar.ConclusionIndividualized structured physical activity program increases physical activity in the treatment of resistant hypertensives in primary care but the effect on 24-h blood pressure is only transient.

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The National After-School Athletics Program Participation as a Tool to Reduce the Risk of Obesity in Adolescents after One Year of Intervention: A Nationwide Study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16030405 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 405 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dominika Głąbska ◽

Dominika Guzek ◽

Blanka Mellová ◽

Katarzyna Zadka ◽

Katarzyna Żywczyk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Body Composition ◽

Body Mass ◽

The Body ◽

Physical Activity Program ◽

Impedance Method ◽

After School ◽

Nutritional Education ◽

Activity Program ◽

One Year

Regular exercise during school hours is encouraged; however many children and adolescents fail to meet the recommendations during this time. Extracurricular activities may be a more appealing way for youth to achieve guidelines, and it is recommended that they attend two sessions each week. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of participation in a national physical activity program accompanied by nutritional education for trainers on the risk of obesity and body composition in a nationwide sample of boys and girls, after one year of intervention. The #goathletics Study was conducted in a group of 1014 adolescents aged 12–13: 507 individuals for the Athletics for All program (210 boys, 297 girls) and 507 pair-matched individuals not participating in any physical activity program (matching including: gender, age, city of residence). The body mass (kg), Body Mass Index (BMI) (kg/m2), waist circumference (WC) (cm), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) (-) and body composition (%) (measured using bioelectrical impedance method) were compared in a gender-related sub-groups using t-Student test (for parametric distributions) or Mann-Whitney U test (for nonparametric distributions) and chi2 test (for the share of sub-groups). After one year of intervention, lower body mass percentile, BMI percentile, WC, WHtR and fat mass share, higher muscle mass share, as well as lower frequency of overweight/obesity and abdominal fat distribution were observed both for boys and girls participating in the physical activity intervention compared to the pair-matched controls. The after-school physical activity program accompanied by nutritional education for trainers may be a highly effective method for reducing the risk of obesity both for boys and girls, as regular participation is ensured.

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