Barriers to Delivering Extracurricular School Sport and Physical Activity in Wales: A Qualitative Study of 5x60 Officers’ Views and Perspectives

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
Paul Rainer ◽  
Robert Griffiths ◽  
Brendan Cropley ◽  
Stuart Jarvis

Background:In light of recent reports, schools must be realistic in that physical activity recommendations cannot be met through curriculum PE alone. However, extracurricular PE and school sport has the potential to further promote physical activity in adolescents. Consequently, the Welsh Government, UK, proposed through its Climbing Higher strategy (2006) for secondary school children to achieve 60 minutes of physical activity a day. This was implemented through Sport Wales and the 5×60 scheme.Method:This study aimed to examine the experiences of the 5×60 officers responsible for implementing the program, with a view to gain an understanding of the barriers associated with increasing participation in physical activity. Officers from 14 unitary authorities across Wales were interviewed using a socioecological approach that considered the impact of: personal behaviors, physical environment, social environment, and policy.Results:Participants reported a number of challenges affecting the delivery of the program, including: availability of facilities, lack of support from senior management, time, and conflict with PE staff.Conclusion:This study suggests that current methods used by personnel to facilitate extracurricular school sport may not be the most appropriate, and future direction should consider the place and contribution of physical activity to young people’s lives.

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa V. Giles ◽  
Michael S. Koehle ◽  
Brian E. Saelens ◽  
Hind Sbihi ◽  
Chris Carlsten

Abstract Background The physical environment can facilitate or hinder physical activity. A challenge in promoting physical activity is ensuring that the physical environment is supportive and that these supports are appropriately tailored to the individual or group in question. Ideally, aspects of the environment that impact physical activity would be enhanced, but environmental changes take time, and identifying ways to provide more precision to physical activity recommendations might be helpful for specific individuals or groups. Therefore, moving beyond a “one size fits all” to a precision-based approach is critical. Main body To this end, we considered 4 critical aspects of the physical environment that influence physical activity (walkability, green space, traffic-related air pollution, and heat) and how these aspects could enhance our ability to precisely guide physical activity. Strategies to increase physical activity could include optimizing design of the built environment or mitigating of some of the environmental impediments to activity through personalized or population-wide interventions. Conclusions Although at present non-personalized approaches may be more widespread than those tailored to one person’s physical environment, targeting intrinsic personal elements (e.g., medical conditions, sex, age, socioeconomic status) has interesting potential to enhance the likelihood and ability of individuals to participate in physical activity.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Gualtieri ◽  
Zoë Reinus ◽  
Sandra Rosenbluth ◽  
Jeffrey Phillips

BACKGROUND Adding physical activity to a weekly routine has been shown to contribute to both delaying onset and improving management of existing chronic conditions. With physicians a highly trusted source of advice and care, the physical activity recommendations received from doctors may be adhered to more than other sources, especially when advice is tailored to patients’ specific physical conditions and limitations in increasing activity levels. Yet a survey by Smith et al found that fewer than 50% of clinicians were able to provide specific guidance on physical activity. This issue may stem from physicians rarely having objective physical activity data to inform their counseling. OBJECTIVE We aimed to understand physician perceptions of the potential benefits and challenges of integrating trackers in a clinical setting to provide tailored counseling to patients on increasing physical activity. METHODS Our study consisted of two phases: an online survey and in-depth, key-informant interviews. We recruited 60 clinicians to complete a 50-question survey and recruited fourteen primary and specialty care physicians for 15-20 minute in-person or phone interviews. Results from the survey were tabulated through Google Forms, while the interviews were recorded and then analyzed for emerging themes. RESULTS Fifty-seven percent of the fourteen interviewed physicians reported that objective data would be useful in counseling their patients on physical activity. Three-quarters (77%) believed that advice based on an objective data display would be actionable for the patients. Of the 60 clinicians who completed the online survey, only 14% believe their patients are adhering to their physical activity recommendations. More than half (57%) of respondents believe that objective data collected from a tracker would be useful in counseling patients. However, when asked how likely they would be to recommend a tracker to a patient, 43% replied they would recommend a tracker to help motivate patients to make a lifestyle change. From the interviews and the survey, the majority of physicians believed that their biggest barrier is limited time for reviewing data, yet they also expressed strong interest in well-designed displays with a small number of data points highlighting physical activity since the patients' last visit. CONCLUSIONS The majority of physicians in our study believed that integrating tracker data into clinical settings would improve their ability to make personalized recommendations to patients, but also noted that significant barriers exist, most notably time. Future research is needed to 1) create and test condensed tracker data displays to determine physician willingness to view and use them, 2) evaluate the impact of the displays on physicians' ability to provide tailored advice to patients, and 3) evaluate the impact of tailored advice on increases in patients' physical activity levels.


Author(s):  
Pooja S. Tandon ◽  
Emily Kroshus ◽  
Katharine Olsen ◽  
Kimberly Garrett ◽  
Pingping Qu ◽  
...  

Access to opportunities for physical activity and sports, and therefore potential benefits of participation, are distributed inequitably. The aims of this study were to describe and compare youth experiences related to sport and physical activity by socioeconomic factors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted of students in 5–12th grades in King County, Washington, USA. Students were asked about physical activity and sports experiences and about demographic factors including family affluence, which was categorized as low, medium, and high. Participants were 1038 youth (50% girls, 58% non-White, and 32% from homes where languages other than English are spoken). Children from low-affluence families reported fewer days/week of physical activity, fewer sports sampled, and lower rates of ever playing sports. Greater proportions of children from low-affluence families reported these barriers to sports: (1) don’t want to get hurt, (2) don’t feel welcome on teams, (3) too expensive, and (4) transportation. Middle school children from high-affluence families had three times higher odds of meeting physical activity recommendations, and high-affluence high schoolers had three times higher odds of ever participating in sports compared to peers from low-affluence families. Socioeconomic status was inversely associated with outcomes related to youth physical activity and sports participation. The disproportionately reported barriers to sports participation are modifiable, and cross-sector solutions can help promote play equity.


2020 ◽  
pp. 135910532097765
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Salinas ◽  
Roy Valenzuela ◽  
Jon Sheen ◽  
Malcolm Carlyle ◽  
Jennifer Gay ◽  
...  

Most Mexican-Americans do not meet current physical activity recommendations. This paper uses the ORBIT model of obesity intervention development as a framework to outline the process of establishing three employer-based walking challenges in El Paso, Texas, a predominantly Mexican American community. The walking challenges were planned and implemented through the Border Coalition for Fitness and participating partnering organizations. Over 2000 participants and several employers took part in the walking challenges. Results from this ORBIT Phase 1 design intervention suggest that walking challenges are a feasible approach to increase physical activity in Mexican-Americans.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Tong ◽  
Elizabeth Morris ◽  
Susan A. Jebb ◽  
Dimitrios A. Koutoukidis

Abstract Background Many people with obesity receive weight loss consultations by general practice nurses (GPNs) in routine primary care. This exploratory study aimed to characterise the components of these consultations, including behaviour change techniques (BCTs), and dietary and physical activity recommendations. Methods We analysed audio recordings of weight management consultations conducted by 8 GPNs as part of the ‘usual care’ group in a randomised controlled trial (ISRCTN75092026). Consultations were coded against three taxonomies to classify BCTs, dietary recommendations, and physical activity recommendations. Associations between coded content and weight loss were assessed. Differences in the content of consultations where weight loss was < 5% or ≥ 5% from baseline weight at 6 months were explored. Results One hundred and fifty audio recordings were available from 53 out of 140 (38%) participants in the usual care group. Participants had on average 3 (SD = 1) recorded consultations over 3 months, lasting 14 (SD = 7) minutes each. Weight change at 3, 6, and 12 months was -3.6% (SD = 4.3), -5.5% (SD = 6.0) and -4.2% (SD = 6.5) for participants with audio recordings. GPNs used 3.9 (SD = 1.6) of 93 BCTs, 3.3 (SD = 2.7) of 30 dietary recommendations and 1.4 (SD = 1.2) of 10 physical activity recommendations per consultation. The most commonly employed BCTs were feedback on outcome of behaviour (80.0%), problem solving (38.0%), and social reward (34.3%). The most common dietary recommendations were about portion size (31.3%), nutrients (28.0%), and balanced diet (19.7%). The main physical activity recommendation was about walking (30.3%). There was no association between weight loss and the number of dietary recommendations, physical activity recommendations, or BCTs used per consultation, or per participant. Social reward was the only technique used significantly more in consultations of participants that lost ≥ 5% of their baseline weight at 6 months. Conclusions The study provides a new method that could be used to describe the content of weight management consultations. Specific dietary or physical activity recommendations and BCTs were used infrequently and inconsistently in this group of GPNs. Although replication is required in larger samples, this may point to a weakness in current practice.


Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Sara Lahuerta-Contell ◽  
Javier Molina-García ◽  
Ana Queralt ◽  
Vladimir E. Martínez-Bello

Research on physical activity (PA) in different educational settings could elucidate which interventions promote a healthy school lifestyle in early childhood education (ECE). The aims of this study were: (a) to analyse the PA levels of preschoolers during school hours, as well as the rate of compliance with specific recommendations on total PA (TPA) and moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA); (b) to examine the role of structured movement sessions and recess time in the MVPA levels during school hours; (c) to evaluate the sociodemographic correlates of preschoolers and the school environment on MVPA behaviour during school hours. PA was evaluated with Actigraph accelerometers. Our main findings were that: (a) preschoolers engaged in very little TPA and MVPA during school hours; (b) children showed significantly higher MVPA levels on days with versus without structured movement sessions, and the contribution of the structured sessions to MVPA was significantly higher than that of recess time; (c) gender and age were associated with PA, and a high density of young children on the playground was associated with high levels of vigorous PA, whereas in the classroom, high density was associated with more sedentary behaviour. Structured PA could reduce the gap in achieving international recommendations.


Author(s):  
Karel Frömel ◽  
Jana Vašíčková ◽  
Krzysztof Skalik ◽  
Zbyněk Svozil ◽  
Dorota Groffik ◽  
...  

The current social, health, and educational changes in society require an adequate response in school-based physical activity (PA), including physical education (PE) lessons. The objective of this study was to identify the real average step counts of Czech and Polish adolescents during PE lessons, and propose recommendations for improving PE programs. This research was carried out in 143 Czech and 99 Polish schools. In the research, a total of 4911 adolescents aged 12–18 years were analyzed as part of teaching practice and 1827 in the context of habitual school practice. Steps were monitored using pedometers. The average step count per PE lesson was 2390 in Czech and Polish boys, while girls achieved 1851 steps. In both countries, boys were subject to greater physical strain in PE lessons compared to girls, both in teaching practice (F(4088,3) = 154.49, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.102) and school practice (F(1552,3) = 70.66, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.103). Therefore, the priority in PE lessons is to increase the amount of PA for girls, achieve the objectives of PE during PA, and use wearables to improve awareness of PA and improve physical literacy, as well as to support hybrid and online PE as a complement to traditional PE.


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