Childrenʼs Heart Rates During Italian Physical Education Lessons

Abstract

1027 Previous reports indicate that the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA, HR > 150 bpm) American children receive during physical education (PE) class is falling far short of national recommendations which call for children to be engaged in MVPA for at least 50% of PE class time. PURPOSE: To determine the amount of MVPA children obtain during Italian PE lessons. METHODS: Levels of physical activity were assessed using heart rate (HR) telemetry in 30 girls and 35 boys (mean age 11.7 +/− 0.8 yr) from two schools identified as having a PE curriculum taught by a PE specialist. Each subject had their HR measured during one co-educational class which consisted of activities and sports common to the Italian PE curriculum. RESULTS: Analysis of the data revealed that the average PE class used 39.5 minutes of the scheduled 45 minute class, whilst children spent 42.5% of class time in MVPA. Girls had a significantly higher average HR during PE class than boys (151.9 +/− 14.9 bpm vs. 138.2 +/− 16.0 bpm, p = .001) and girls spend significantly more time in MVPA than boys (52.2% vs. 34.1%, p = .003). CONCLUSIONS: The amount of MVPA girls engage in during Italian PE lessons is encouraging, although efforts are needed to increase the amount of time boys spend in MVPA during PE class. Larger studies with a randomly selected sample of schools are needed to determine if levels of MVPA found in this study are typical of PE lessons throughout Italy.