scholarly journals The Preliminary Effects of a Multi-Recess School Intervention: Using Accelerometers to Measure Physical Activity Patterns in Elementary Children

Author(s):  
David Farbo ◽  
Laura C. Maler ◽  
Deborah J. Rhea

This pilot study used accelerometers to investigate the effectiveness of a multiple recess school intervention on physical activity patterns in younger elementary children using a post-test only with nonequivalent groups design. First and second grade students (N = 157) participating in a larger study, the LiiNK Project® (Let’s inspire innovation ‘N Kids), wore accelerometers for the duration of the school day for two weeks to measure physical activity intensity and number of steps taken daily. Students attended either an intervention school (N = 90), participating in four 15-min unstructured, outdoor recesses and one 15-min character development lesson daily, or a control school (N = 67), participating in two 15-min unstructured, outdoor recesses daily and no character development program. The intervention students, grades 1 and 2, took more steps (p < 0.001) and time spent in moderate (p < 0.001) and vigorous (p < 0.001) physical activity (MVPA) than the control school students. Intervention students averaged approximately 900 more steps per day than the control school students. These results show young children given 60 min of recess daily continue to increase physical activity patterns over those with 30 min of recess daily. Next steps are to evaluate if children demonstrate healthier body fat levels as a result of these higher patterns of MVPA daily.

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 940-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Areti Lagiou ◽  
Maria Parava

AbstractObjectiveChildhood obesity is a growing public health problem. We have examined the association between sociodemographic profile and eating and physical activity patterns with overweight among primary-school students in Athens, Greece.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingEleven primary schools in the greater Athens area, Greece.SubjectsA total of 633 children aged 10–12 years (50 % boys, 50 % girls) were interviewed in person during spring 2003. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate the association between eating and physical activity patterns and overweight (≥85th sex- and age-specific BMI centile). Results are presented as odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals.ResultsOverweight was more common among girls than among boys (OR=1·73; 95% CI 1·11, 2·69) and substantially less common among children born outside Greece (OR=0·46; CI 0·22, 0·95). Reported physical activity (per 1·5 h per day) was unrelated to overweight (OR=0·97; CI 0·85, 1·12) but patent physical inactivity, operationalised as time spent watching television or working/playing with the computer (per 1·5 h per day) was a highly significant predictor of overweight (OR=1·20; CI 1·05, 1·36). Composition of diet was unrelated to overweight but the daily number of eating occasions, controlling for total energy intake, was significantly inversely associated with overweight (OR=0·61; CI 0·48, 0·76).ConclusionsThe principal factor underlying overweight among children in Athens appears to be the extended inactivity imposed by modern childhood lifestyles. An intriguing finding is that spreading a given energy intake over several eating occasions was inversely associated with the likelihood of childhood obesity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 739-752
Author(s):  
Veronika Végh ◽  
Gergely Horzsa ◽  
Zsolt B. Nagy ◽  
Gábor Elbert ◽  
Henriette Pusztafalvi

The rationale behind the research is the Hungarian government’s decision to introduce daily physical education lessons in schools. The system was expanded to all grades by the 2016/2017 academic year. It aims to improve students’ health consciousness and sports habits. Hungarian high school students’ physical activity, participation in competitive sport, body mass index and lifestyle determiners were examined with regard to gender. Altogether, 333 students completed the anonymous questionnaire, their average age was 16.12. Their Body Mass Index (BMI) was used to estimate the prevalence of obesity. The association between BMI and lifestyle determiners was analysed. 63.8% of girls and 70.4% of boys exercise daily or several times a week. Girls love individual sports, while boys would rather choose team sports. More boys participate in competitive sports (26.2%) than girls (16.5%). Both genders’ biology marks are better than those of students who do no sport. 46.81% of girls and 27.59% of boys have been on a slimming diet, and a high percentage of girls were on a slimming diet, even those with a normal BMI. The results suggest that despite having five physical education (PE) lessons every week, students want to get more exercise. However, a lack of time and fatigue prevents them from doing so. Most children chose PE as their favourite subject, but out of all sporting venues it is at school that they like doing sport the least. Keywords: physical activity patterns, eating habits, physical education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Aghababa ◽  
Seyed Hojjat Zamani Sani ◽  
Hadi Rohani ◽  
Maghsoud Nabilpour ◽  
Georgian Badicu ◽  
...  

Objective: To cope with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic health authorities released social restrictions. Such social restrictions impacted on the people's possibilities to move deliberately in a public space and to gather with other people. In the present study, we investigated the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions (“confinement”) on physical activity (PA) patterns before and during the confinement among team sports participants. Such PA patterns were further related to current mood states, and possible sex differences were also explored.Methods: A total of 476 adults exercising team sport (football, futsal, volleyball, handball, and basketball; mean age: 24.66 years; 48.1% females) completed a series of self-rating questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, former and current PA patterns, and current mood states.Results: Compared with the period before the confinement, PA intensity decreased, but PA frequency increased during the confinement. Past, current, and changes in physical activity patterns were unrelated to participants' mood states. Sex differences in mood were spurious. Sex differences in physical activity patterns were modest, with male participants reporting a higher physical activity intensity during the confinement.Conclusions: The present pattern of results suggests that the COVID-19-related confinement did not impact in a uniform fashion on PA patterns of adults attending team sports. Furthermore, mood states were unrelated to current physical activity patterns. Given the complex psychosocial situation of COVID-19-related confinement, it appeared very unlikely that sole physical activity patterns could counterbalance possible impaired states of mood and behavior.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao-Wei Yeh ◽  
Chun-Yan Yuan ◽  
Yu-Feng Wu ◽  
Rui Shen

BACKGROUND Promoting physical activity for adolescence is a global challenge in public health. Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors have been regarded to cause harmful chronic diseases to adolescent lifespan. However, high engagement in mobile technology for students may provide opportunities to help change adolescent unhealthy behaviors. Therefore, school sectors may play an important key role, such as implementing mobile health (mHealth) intervention to change students’ unhealthy behaviors and promote regular physical exercise behaviors, especially during the transition from adolescence to young adult. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore university students’ daily exercise patterns upon intervention of school-based mHealth project. METHODS Students’ physical exercise participation was recorded with students’ mobile application. With 4152 university freshmen (1476 males, 2676 females) and 335898 of their exercise records were analyzed (mean frequency of 38.2 ±16.10 in males, 45.1±10.81 in females) during the semester. RESULTS Under the school intervention project, students that exercised on Friday and Saturday was lower than that on other days, which indicated that the participation in exercise were more active on weekdays than on weekends. Among the participants who completed the requirement set by the school intervention project, both males and females used weekends to do exercise. On the other hand, overweight male university students participated in physical activity more than the requirement of the school intervention project and their exercise duration were found to be significantly higher than other participants. CONCLUSIONS Understanding a week of daily exercise patterns among youth upon the school mHealth Apps intervention can benefit in developing efficient and flexible projects to promote physical health and improve regular exercise participation in youth.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Majchrzak ◽  
Lara B. Pupim ◽  
Kong Chen ◽  
Cathi J. Martin ◽  
Sheila Gaffney ◽  
...  

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1255-1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANN P. RAFFERTY ◽  
MATHEW J. REEVES ◽  
HARRY B. MCGEE ◽  
JAMES M. PIVARNIK

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