Abstract
Knowledge about associations between school-based initiatives and physical activity patterns is limited. The purpose of this paper was to examine associations between factors in the school environment, physical activity and sedentary time during school time. The cross-sectional study included 1139 adolescents aged 13–14 from 34 schools. Physical activity and sedentary time were measured using hip-worn accelerometers. Factors in the school environment included health policy, a mobile phone ban during breaks, organized physical activities during breaks and activity breaks during lessons reported by teachers. The frequency and duration of breaks and physical education (PE) lessons were collected from school schedules. The results showed significant associations between health policy (β = 3.87, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.37, 5.23), the mobile phone ban (β = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.29, 3.94) and PE; total duration (β = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.11), average duration (β = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.13) and frequency (β = 1.73, 95% CI: 0.50, 3.04) and moderate-vigorous physical activity. There were negative associations between health policy (β = −6.41, 95% CI: −10.24, −2.67), the mobile phone ban (β = −3.75, 95% CI: −7.25, −0.77) and PE; total duration (β = −0.15, 95% CI: −0.23, −0.08) and average duration (β = −0.14, 95% CI: −0.27, −0.03) and time spent sedentary. Adolescents attending schools with health policies, mobile phone bans and more time for PE showed higher levels of physical activity and lower sedentary time.
Highlights
Being physically active during adolescence has substantial benefits for physical and mental health, both in the short and long term [1,2]
The majority of adolescents do not meet the international guidelines of 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily [4], and boys are more physically active compared to girls [5,6,7]
The results showed positive significant associations between health policy (β = 3.87, 95% CI: 2.37, 5.23), mobile phone ban during breaks (β = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.29, 3.94) and
Summary
Being physically active during adolescence has substantial benefits for physical and mental health, both in the short and long term [1,2]. The majority of adolescents do not meet the international guidelines of 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily [4], and boys are more physically active compared to girls [5,6,7]. National data from Sweden with adolescents using accelerometry showed that the total sedentary time was on average 10.3 h per day [9]. Results from European children aged 9–12 years showed that the average time spent sedentary was vastly lower, or 8.6 h per day [10]. There is evidence to suggest that among children and adolescents, more
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