School polices, programmes and facilities, and objectively measured sedentary time, LPA and MVPA: associations in secondary school and over the transition from primary to secondary school.

Katie L Morton,Esther M F Van Sluijs,Flo Harrison,Marc Suhrcke,Kirsten Corder,Andy P Jones,Andrew J Atkin

doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0378-6

Abstract

BackgroundThere is increasing policy interest in ensuring that the school environment supports healthy behaviours. We examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between schools’ policies, programmes and facilities for physical activity (PA) and adolescents’ objectively-measured activity intensity during the school day and lunchtime.MethodsAccelerometer-derived PA (proportion of time spent in sedentary (SED), light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA)) during school hours and lunchtime from 325 participants in the SPEEDY study were obtained from baseline measurements (primary school, age 9/10 years) and +4y follow-up (secondary school). School environment characteristics were assessed by teacher questionnaire. Multivariable multi-level linear regression analyses accounting for school and adjusted for sex, age, BMI and family socio-economic status assessed cross-sectional associations with lunchtime and school-day SED, LPA and MVPA; effect modification by sex was investigated. The association of changes in school environment with changes in outcomes was examined using multivariable cross-classified linear regression models.ResultsThere were significant differences between primary and secondary schools for 6/10 school environment characteristics investigated (including secondary schools reporting shorter breaks, more lunchtime PA opportunities, and higher number of sports facilities). Cross-sectional analyses showed that boys attending secondary schools with longer breaks spent significantly less time in SED and more time in MVPA during the school day. Longitudinally, an increase in break-time duration between primary and secondary school was associated with smaller reductions in MVPA during the school day. Moreover, participants who moved from a primary school that did not provide opportunities for PA at lunchtime to a secondary school that did provide such opportunities exhibited smaller increases in SED and smaller reductions in MVPA at lunchtime.ConclusionsSchools should consider the potential negative impact of reducing break time duration on students’ MVPA and SED during the school day. School-based interventions that combine longer breaks and more PA opportunities during lunchtime may be a fruitful direction for future research. Further research should also explore other factors in the school environment to explain the school-level clustering observed, and study sex differences in the way that the school environment influences activity intensity for adolescent populations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0378-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

There is increasing policy interest in ensuring that the school environment supports healthy behaviours
This study aims to add to the limited knowledge on the importance of the secondary school environment for student activity intensity (sedentary time (SED), light physical activity (LPA, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA))
There were no differences in the age, sex or BMI of participants that provided valid accelerometer data for either lunch time or the whole school day at SPEEDY3 relative to those that were assessed at SPEEDY 1

Summary

Introduction

There is increasing policy interest in ensuring that the school environment supports healthy behaviours. Schools are considered an important setting for the promotion of health and well-being in young people, and there is increasing policy interest in ensuring that the school environment supports activity [8,9,10]. In a previous analysis of SPEEDY [15] data, Harrison and colleagues identified few associations between objectively measured features of the school physical environment and adolescent MVPA [14]. The current study extends this research by considering how multiple schoolrelated factors, beyond the objectively measured physical environment, may be associated with adolescent physical activity and sedentary time. This includes “whole-school” policies, programmes and resources for physical activity

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