School environment and physical activity in adolescents from S\xe3o Paulo city

Gerson Ferrari,Leandro F M Rezende,Alex A Florindo,Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres,Grégore I Mielke

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97671-z

Abstract

We examined the association of physical activity (PA) facilities and access to school with total PA and domain-specific PA in adolescents. We enrolled 2610 adolescents (mean: 14.9 years) from Sao Paulo city. The number and presence of sports courts, swimming pools, locker rooms, running/athletics tracks, entrance accessible for student cyclists, bike racks, speed limit signal around the school, and pedestrian crossing were assessed in each school. All participants responded to a questionnaire about frequency and duration of physical education classes, leisure time, and active commuting. Total PA was obtained by adding up all PA domains. Presence of three or more (OR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.15 to 2.30) sports courts, swimming pool available in usable conditions (OR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.01 to 2.10), running/athletics tracks (OR: 2.35; 95% CI: 1.07 to 5.18), and bike racks (OR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.78) were positively associated with total PA. Number of sports courts, swimming pool available in usable conditions, speed limit signals around the school, and pedestrian crossings were positively associated with physical education classes. The bike racks, speed limit signs around the school, and pedestrian crossings were positively associated with active commuting. School environment was associated with increased PA. Our findings should be considered in future epidemiologic studies and for educational and health policy makers.

Highlights

Monetary aspects may affect the ability of schools to provide opportunities to encourage physical activity among adolescents within the school environment
We examined the association of physical activity facilities and the access to school with total physical domain-specific physical activity in adolescents from Sao Paulo city, Brazil
We found that higher number of sports courts (≥ 3), swimming pool available in usable conditions, running/athletics tracks, and bike racks were positively associated with total physical activity (≥ 60 min/day)

Summary

Introduction

Monetary aspects may affect the ability of schools to provide opportunities to encourage physical activity among adolescents within the school environment. Few studies have shown the association between facilities for physical activity in the school and access to school with total and domain-specific physical activity in adolescents living in megacities from low- to middle-income c ountries[17]. Studies on adolescents from the high-income countries found significant associations between physical activity facilities and total physical activity[22,23,24]. There are relatively few representative studies about these factors mega cities in low- to middle income countries, in Latin America[25]. To analyze the associations between physical activity facilities and access to school may contribute to the physical activity opportunities of the Latin American adolescents. We examined the association of physical activity facilities and the access to school with total physical domain-specific physical activity in adolescents from Sao Paulo city, Brazil

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion