Levels of activity and enjoyment were measured in 73 Hong Kong primary school children (39 girls and 34 boys), during regularly scheduled physical education (PE) classes. Classroom activities were classified into one of 4 types (ball games, athletics, gymnastics and free play). Activity levels were monitored by heart rate telemetry and by direct observation (CARS), whilst enjoyment was scored using a 5-point Likert scale. Results showed that the average PE class used 22 minutes of the scheduled 35 class time, whilst the students spent 3.7 min in moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) activity (60-90%HRR), and nearly 50% of the children spent less than 2 minutes with their heart rate above 159 beats · min−1. There were no significant differences in activity levels between genders. Ball games and free play generally produced statistically higher heart rates and CARS values than gymnastics. The levels of enjoyment were low (3.7 − 1.0), but did not vary significantly between gender or activity type. A variety of social and environmental factors may contribute to these low activity and enjoyment levels.
Search Results
Children’s Heart Rates and Enjoyment Levels during PE Classes in Hong Kong Primary Schools
Duncan Macfarlane and Wong Tung Kwong
A Process Evaluation of an Outreach Physical Activity Program in an Inner-City Primary School
Afroditi Stathi and Simon J. Sebire
Background:
Inner-city schools experience substantial difficulties in providing sufficient physical activity opportunities for their pupils. This study evaluated the Y-Active, an outreach physical activity and well-being program delivered in an inner-city primary school in London, UK by a third-sector partner.
Methods:
A process evaluation focusing on perceived effectiveness and implementation issues was conducted using qualitative case-study methodology. Semistructured interviews and focus groups were conducted with Year 5 and Year 6 pupils (N = 17, age range = 9 to 11 years), Y-Active sports leaders (N = 4), the school head teacher, class teachers (N = 2), and the Y-Active administrator. Transcripts were thematically analyzed and multiple informant and analyst triangulation performed.
Results:
The Y-Active leaders created a positive learning environment supporting autonomy, balancing discipline and structure and providing self-referenced feedback, excellence in tuition and a strong focus on fun and praise. Pupils reported improvements in self-confidence and competence, self-discipline and interpersonal relationships. School staff and Y-Active leaders highlighted that their partnership was built on trust, top-down leadership support and open lines of communication between the provider and the school.
Conclusions:
Collaboration between third sector service providers and inner-city schools represents a promising means of increasing children’s physical activity and well-being.
Active Travel to Primary Schools in Ireland: An Opportunistic Evaluation of a Natural Experiment
Barry Lambe, Niamh Murphy, and Adrian Bauman
Background:
There is a paucity of intervention studies assessing active travel to school as a mechanism to increase physical activity. This paper describes the impact of a community-wide intervention on active travel to primary schools in 2 Irish towns.
Methods:
This was a repeat cross-sectional study of a natural experiment. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 5th and 6th grade students in 3 towns (n = 1038 students in 2 intervention towns; n = 419 students in 1 control town) at baseline and by a new group of students 2 years later at follow-up. The absolute change in the proportion of children walking and cycling to school (difference in differences) was calculated.
Results:
There was no overall intervention effect detected for active travel to or from school. This is despite an absolute increase of 14.7% (1.6, 27.9) in the proportion of children that indicated a preference for active travel to school in the town with the most intensive intervention (town 2).
Conclusions:
Interventions designed to increase active travel to school hold some promise but should have a high-intensity mix of infrastructural and behavioral measures, be gender-specific, address car dependency and focus on travel home from school initially.
Factors Influencing Break-Time Physical Activity of South African Primary School Learners From Low-Income Communities
Monika Uys, Catherine Elizabeth Draper, Sharief Hendricks, Anniza de Villiers, Jean Fourie, Nelia Steyn, and Estelle Victoria Lambert
Background:
The purpose of this study was to assess factors that influence physical activity (PA) levels during break-times in South African primary school children.
Methods:
The System for Observing Play and Leisure Activities in Youth (SOPLAY) was used to observe PA levels during break-times at low-income schools (4 intervention, 4 control). The intervention was based on action-planning including: school environment, curriculum, and family involvement. Categories of observed activity included Sedentary, Eating, Walking, or Vigorous PA. Contextual factors assessed included teacher supervision, equipment, and crowding. Chi-square tests were used to determine associations between PA levels and contextual factors.
Results:
In the 970 observations made, 31% of learners were sedentary, 14% were eating, 29% were walking, and 26% were engaged in vigorous PA. There were no differences in break-time PA between intervention and control groups (NS). With supervision, children were more likely to eat and less likely to do vigorous PA (P = .035). Playground crowding was associated with lower levels of vigorous activity and more sedentary behavior (P = .000).
Conclusions:
PA during break-time was adversely affected by over-crowding and lower with supervision. The results suggest that interventions may be targeted at the school policy environment to reduce these barriers to PA.
Energy Expenditure in Playground Games in Primary School Children Measured by Accelerometer and Heart Rate Monitors
Jorge Cañete García-Prieto, Vicente Martinez-Vizcaino, Antonio García-Hermoso, Mairena Sánchez-López, Natalia Arias-Palencia, Juan Fernando Ortega Fonseca, and Ricardo Mora-Rodriguez
The aim of this study was to examine the energy expenditure (EE) measured using indirect calorimetry (IC) during playground games and to assess the validity of heart rate (HR) and accelerometry counts as indirect indicators of EE in children´s physical activity games. 32 primary school children (9.9 ± 0.6 years old, 19.8 ± 4.9 kg · m-2 BMI and 37.6 ± 7.2 ml · kg-1 · min-1 VO2max). Indirect calorimetry (IC), accelerometry and HR data were simultaneously collected for each child during a 90 min session of 30 playground games. Thirty-eight sessions were recorded in 32 different children. Each game was recorded at least in three occasions in other three children. The intersubject coefficient of variation within a game was 27% for IC, 37% for accelerometry and 13% for HR. The overall mean EE in the games was 4.2 ± 1.4 kcals · min-1 per game, totaling to 375 ± 122 kcals/per 90 min/session. The correlation coefficient between indirect calorimetry and accelerometer counts was 0.48 (p = .026) for endurance games and 0.21 (p = .574) for strength games. The correlation coefficient between indirect calorimetry and HR was 0.71 (p = .032) for endurance games and 0.48 (p = .026) for strength games. Our data indicate that both accelerometer and HR monitors are useful devices for estimating EE during endurance games, but only HR monitors estimates are accurate for endurance games.
Observing Children’s Playground Activity Levels at 13 Illawarra Primary Schools Using CAST2
Anne-Maree Parrish, Don Iverson, Ken Russell, and Heather Yeatman
Background:
Declining levels of children’s physical activity may contribute to Australia’s increasing childhood obesity epidemic. School recess is an underutilized opportunity to increase children’s physical activity.1
Methods:
Thirteen regional Australian public primary schools participated in the study (2946 children). The Children’s Activity Scanning Tool 2 (CAST2) collected observational playground physical activity data. The research also addressed: length of break, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, number of scanning days, and instrument calibration.
Results:
The proportions of Moderate or Vigorous Physically Activity (MVPA) children at the observed schools ranged from 0.4 to 0.7. The odds ratio of boys being MVPA relative to girls ranged from 0.8581 to 2.137. There were significant differences between the mean proportions of 3 days of activity (range P = .001 to P = .015) and no association between SES school groupings (deviance ratio: 0.48; P = .503). Interrater reliability for instrument calibration using Spearman correlations coefficients ranged from r = .71 to r = .99.
Conclusions:
There were significant differences between proportions of MVPA children at the 13 schools and between male and female populations. There was no association between playground physical activity and SES. The monitoring period for CAST2 should be at least 3 days. Interrater reliability indicates that correlations between observers were consistently high.
Bizzy Break! The Effect of a Classroom-Based Activity Break on In-School Physical Activity Levels of Primary School Children
Elaine Murtagh, Maureen Mulvihill, and Oonagh Markey
The school has been identified as a key setting to promote physical activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a classroom-based activity break on in-school step counts of primary school children. Data for 90 children (49 boys, 41 girls, 9.3 ± 1.4 years) from three Irish primary schools is presented. In each school one class was randomly assigned as the intervention group and another as controls. Children’s step counts were measured for five consecutive days during school hours at baseline and follow-up. Teachers of the intervention classes led a 10 min activity break in the classroom each day (Bizzy Break!). Mean daily in-school steps for the intervention at baseline and follow-up were 5351 and 5054. Corresponding values for the control group were 5469 and 4246. There was a significant difference in the change in daily steps from baseline to follow-up between groups (p < .05). There was no evidence that girls and boys responded differently to the intervention (p > .05). Children participating in a daily 10 min classroom-based activity break undertake more physical activity during school hours than controls.
School Playground Facilities as a Determinant of Children’s Daily Activity: A Cross-Sectional Study of Danish Primary School Children
Glen Nielsen, Anna Bugge, Bianca Hermansen, Jesper Svensson, and Lars Bo Andersen
Background:
This study investigates the influence of school playground facilities on children’s daily physical activity.
Methods:
Participants were 594 school children measured at preschool (age 6 to 7 years) and 3 years later in third grade (518 children age 9 to 10 years) from 18 schools in 2 suburban municipalities in Denmark. Physical activity data were obtained using accelerometers. These were related to the number of permanent play facilities in school grounds and the school playground area (m2).
Results:
The number of play facilities in the school grounds was positively associated with all measures of children’s activity. In preschool every 10 additional play facilities the children had access to was associated with an increase in the average accelerometer counts of 14% (r = .273, P < .001) in school time and 6.9% (r = .195, P < .001) overall. For the children in third grade, access to 10 additional play facilities was associated with an increase in school time activity level of 26% (r = .364, P < .001) and an increase in overall activity level of 9.4% (r = .211, P < .001). School playground area did not affect activity levels independently of the number of permanent play facilities.
Conclusion:
Increasing the number of play facilities in primary school playgrounds may increase the level of children’s daily physical activity.
Influence of School Schedules on Physical Activity Patterns in Primary School Children: A Case Study in Italy
Massimiliano Pau, Federica Corona, Bruno Leban, Simona Piredda, Maria Marcella Vacca, and Gioia Mura
Background:
Considering the relevant amount of time spent by children at school, it is essential to ensure that suitable levels of physical activity (PA) are guaranteed. This study aimed to assess possible changes induced in the amount and type of PA performed following the 2 schedules in Italian primary schools, namely regular and full time (30–40 h/week respectively).
Methods:
A sample of 169 children wore a triaxial accelerometer 24h/day for 7 consecutive days. Raw data were processed to calculate the number of steps, amount and intensity of the PA performed in morning, afternoon and evening time slots.
Results:
During weekday afternoon times (1:30 to 4:30 PM), children attending the full-time schedule spent significantly less time in sedentary behavior with respect to those who attend the regular time (54.7% vs. 60.0%, P < .001) and more time in moderate-to-vigorous activity (18.0% vs. 15.0%, P = .004). No differences between morning and evening times were found.
Conclusions:
The structure of the full time schedule, which includes a second recess, promotes higher and more intense levels of PA during the afternoon. Such information represent a useful input in planning differential PA activities for children attending the regular time to achieve similar PA levels for the whole school population.
Effects of Physical Education on Objectively Determined Physical Activity in Primary School Children—Which Proportioning Is Best?
Susanne Kobel, Sarah Kettner, Nanette Erkelenz, Dorothea Kesztyüs, and Jürgen M. Steinacker
Physical Education (PE) can foster regular physical activity (PA) in children. However, children engage in insufficient moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) during PE. This study objectively investigated MVPA of children during a single, compared with double PE-period. In 294 children (7.1 ± 0.7 years) PA was objectively assessed. PE periods were determined and PA was individually calculated. Children spent 8.5 ± 7.3 minutes of each 45 minutes PE lesson in MVPA. Boys were significantly more active than girls (p ≤ .01). All children participated in 135 minutes PE/week, 32.7% were scheduled one double and one single PE-period. Children, with a double PE-period and one single lesson engaged in significantly less MVPA than children, who had three single periods of PE (6.7 ± 6.9 minutes/45 minutes vs. 9.4 ± 7.4 minutes/45 minutes, respectively; p ≤ .01) In conclusion, single periods of PE seem to be more effective in getting primary school children to engage in more MVPA than one double period per week.
