Abstract
BackgroundUsing a cross-sectional design, we assessed the relationship between the time schools provide for physical activity and the proportion of students achieving a healthy aerobic capacity or body mass index.MethodsIn 2013–2014, physical education and grade-level teachers from 905 of 1,244 Georgia elementary schools provided survey data about the frequency and duration of physical activity opportunities offered before, during, and after school. Log-binomial models related the weekly physical activity minutes provided by schools to the proportion of children in the FitnessGram healthy fitness zone for aerobic capacity or body mass index while adjusting for school characteristics and demographics.ResultsDuring-school physical activity time was not associated with student fitness, but schools with before-school physical activity programs had a moderately higher prevalence of healthy aerobic capacity (prevalence ratio among girls: 1.06; 99% confidence interval: 1.00–1.13; prevalence ratio among boys: 1.03; 99% confidence interval: 0.99–1.08). Each additional 30 minutes of recess per week was associated with no more than a 3%-higher proportion of students with healthy body mass indexes (prevalence ratio among girls: 1.01; 99% confidence interval: 1.00–1.03; prevalence ratio among boys: 1.01; 99% confidence interval: 0.99–1.03).ConclusionsThe amount of physical activity time provided by schools is not strongly associated with school-aggregated student fitness. Future studies should be designed to assess the importance of school-based physical activity time on student fitness, relative to physical activity type and quality.
Highlights
Poor health-related fitness in childhood increases future heart disease risk by lowering highdensity lipoproteins and increasing triglycerides, elevating blood pressure, and causing arterial stiffness and early mortality [1,2,3,4,5]
The third party has granted permission to the first and senior authors to act as contacts fielding data access requests because this responsibility was During-school physical activity time was not associated with student fitness, but schools with before-school physical activity programs had a moderately higher prevalence of healthy aerobic capacity
The amount of physical activity time provided by schools is not strongly associated with school-aggregated student fitness
Summary
Poor health-related fitness in childhood increases future heart disease risk by lowering highdensity lipoproteins and increasing triglycerides, elevating blood pressure, and causing arterial stiffness and early mortality [1,2,3,4,5]. Results from FitnessGram, a widely used schoolbased, health-related fitness assessment, show that only 61–62% of elementary-aged children in the US meet healthy fitness zone (HFZ) standards for aerobic capacity and 53–60% of students meet the HFZ for body mass index (BMI) [6]. Due to the sparse literature and mixed findings about the relationship of PA opportunity time with child fitness, the objective of this cross-sectional study was to assess the association between school-level PA opportunities (PE time, recess time, in-class PA time, before-school PA, and after-school PA) and school-aggregated fitness levels of Georgia elementary students. Using a cross-sectional design, we assessed the relationship between the time schools provide for physical activity and the proportion of students achieving a healthy aerobic capacity or body mass index
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