Abstract
BackgroundStructured settings, such as school, childcare, afterschool programs, summer camps, and physical activity/sport programs are crucial to promoting physical activity (PA) opportunities and reducing sedentary (ST) for children and adolescents. However, little is known about how much PA and ST children and adolescents accumulate in structured settings. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the absolute amount of time youth spend physically active and sedentary in different structured settings (Prospero number: 42018111804).MethodsObservational and experimental/quasi-experimental studies (baseline data only) with full-text available, written in English and published in a peer-reviewed journal, reporting the total amount of objectively measured PA (light, moderate, vigorous, and/or total physical activity) and/or time spent ST during structured settings among youth (3 to 18 years) were eligible. Adjusted meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the pooled mean of time spent in PA and ST, by settings and sex.ResultsA total of 187 studies (childcare n=60; school n=91; afterschool programs n=14; summer camp n=4; and Physical activity/ sport programs n=18) from 30 countries (47.9% United States), representing 74,870 youth (mean age 8.6 years old) were included. Overall, there was a high variation between studies in outcomes and settings. The meta-analyses revealed, on average, youth spend 221.8 minutes (36.7 min/hour) in ST and 32.1 minutes (5.1 min/hour) in MVPA during childcare hours, and 223.9 minutes (36.7min/hour) in ST and 27.8 min (4.4 min/hour) in MVPA at school. Relatively, youth are engaged in more MVPA in afterschool programs (11.7 min/hour), PA/ sport programs (20.9 min/hour), and summer camps (6.4 min/hour), when compared to childcare and school.ConclusionTotal PA accumulated during childcare and MVPA accumulated during schools hours were close to recommendations, despite high proportion of ST. Afterschool programs, summer camp and PA/ sport programs are important settings that can contribute to daily PA and reduced ST. Ensuring all youth have access to these structured settings may be an important step forward for public health.
Highlights
Health benefits related to regular engagement in physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary time (ST) during childhood and adolescence are well documented [1,2,3,4]
Considering the structured settings, 48.7% of the studies were conducted in schools (n=91), 32.1% in childcare (n=60), 9.6% in sport programs (n=18), 7.5% in afterschool programs (n=14), and 2.1% in summer camps (n=4)
Adjusted pooled mean estimates are presented in Table 2, considering the PA level and ST accumulated during attendance by structured settings and sex
Summary
Health benefits related to regular engagement in physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary time (ST) during childhood and adolescence are well documented [1,2,3,4]. Structured settings (i.e. school, childcare, afterschool programs, summer camps, and PA/sport programs) are defined as pre-planned, segmented, and adult supervised environments [12], and are the focus of most studies concerned with increasing PA in youth [13,14,15,16,17,18]. Structured settings have broad reach with most children attending one or more structured setting most days of the week (e.g., day/ childcare, schools) Structured settings, such as school, childcare, afterschool programs, summer camps, and physical activity/sport programs are crucial to promoting physical activity (PA) opportunities and reducing sedentary (ST) for children and adolescents. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the absolute amount of time youth spend physically active and sedentary in different structured settings (Prospero number: 42018111804)
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