Effects Of Sport-related And Health-related Physical Education Curricula On The Fitness Levels Of 8Th Graders

Abstract

Purpose To compare the cardiovascular effects of activities associated with healthrelated and sports-related 8th grade physical education classes following a 12-wk training period. Methods Fifty-two 8th grade students (20 boys, 32 girls) from two ethnically-diverse (Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, Asian) physical education classes participated after written parental consent and child assent was obtained. One class (n = 27: 17 girls, 10 boys) was randomly assigned to a health-related curriculum (HRC) and the other (n = 25: 15 girls, 10 boys) to a sports-related curriculum (SRC). HRC performed activities such as running, aerobic dance, circuit and Fartlek training while SRC performed in activities and learning progressions associated with motor skill development in sports. Classes met twice per week for 45 min. Classes began with a 15-min warm-up; the remaining 30 min was devoted to the specific curriculum of the class. Cardiovascular fitness was estimated by one-mile run times and assessed before and immediately after the 12-wk training period. The children ran twice prior to the start of the study to establish reliability of the one-mile run. Statistics Pearson's correlation was used to assess intratest reliability of the one-mile run, and a paired t-test used to evaluate mean times of the two intra-reliability runs. A two-way (curriculum and pre- v post-training) repeated-measures ANOVA was performed. Significant main effects were further evaluated using Tukey's post-hoc testing. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS-PC v 10 with significance set at p ≤ .05. Results Average BMI ± SD of the sample was 22.5 ± 4.97. Intraclass reliability for the one-mile run was high (r = .97, p <.05), and mean difference for the 2 pretest runs was not significant (10.71 ± 2.33 min vs 10.57 ± 2.15 min); individual average pre-test run time was used for remaining analyses. There was a significant main effect (F = 1033.27, p <.001) for pre- vs post-training run times as well as for curriculum. The one-mile run times improved significantly from baseline (10.81 ± 2.35 min) to posttraining (9.73 ± 2.04 min) for the HRC (p <.05). Run times improved for the SRC (baseline: 10.43 ± 2.1 min, post-training:10.25 ± 2.28 min), but the difference in time was not statistically significant. Conclusion Although students in both HRC and SRC improved their one-mile run times, HRC resulted in more improvement compared to SRC. Continuous physical activity for 30 min twice weekly improved estimated cardiovascular fitness in 8th graders more so than did intermittent physical activity common in a sports-related curriculum.