Participants in the Shaping Healthy Choices Program Increased the Intensity of Physical Activity

Abstract

Regular physical activity (PA) has been shown to aid with weight control and improve physiologic, metabolic, and immunologic processes, along with quality of life. The objective of this study was to determine whether intensity of PA improved in 4th‐graders participating in the multi component intervention Shaping Healthy Choices Program (SHCP). At pre‐ and post‐intervention assessments, students at the control and intervention schools were asked to wear a PolarActive monitor on their non‐dominant wrist 24 h/d for 5 consecutive days. The PolarActive used accelerometer technology to measure 3 dimensions of motion capturing time (minutes) spent in different activity intensity levels (very vigorous, vigorous, moderate, easy, and very easy). A total of 54 students at the intervention school and 38 students at the control school used the accelerometers for at least 2 days during both the pre‐ and post‐assessments. Analyses were conducted using STATA 14.0. Tests performed were Student's t‐test and paired t‐test, as appropriate. Mean moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) significantly increased at the intervention school from 81.43 ± 29.36 min/d at pre to 103.70 ± 40.76 min/d at post (P=0.01) and at the control school from 70.10 ± 29.42 min/d at pre to 100.03 ± 63.15 min/d at post (P=0.01). There were no significant differences for the change in MVPA between the intervention and control schools. Students at the intervention school significantly decreased mean time performing very easy activity from pre to post by 78.53 ± 119.12 minutes compared to the controls (16.55 ± 138.42 minutes; P=0.02). While there was no significant difference in the change of very vigorous PA between the control and intervention schools, mean very vigorous PA significantly increased in students at the intervention school from 5.57 ± 4.37 min/d at pre to 7.80 ± 9.23 min/d at post (P=0.04). This significant increase in very vigorous PA was not observed at the control school (P=0.44). Taken together, these results suggest students at the intervention school decreased very easy PA and increased very vigorous PA from pre to post; while these changes were not observed at the control school. These improvements in PA, concomitant with other positive behavioral outcomes, may have contributed to the significant decrease in BMI percentile observed in students participating in the SHCP. Due to the small sample size, significant changes in intensity of PA for those students that improved their BMI percentile were not evaluated. These data support that PA is an important area to target within a multi‐component nutrition intervention aimed at preventing childhood obesity.Support or Funding InformationFunding was provided by UCANR competitive grant #11‐1018, USDA 2011‐38420‐20082, and USDA NIFA Hatch project 221082.