Step Count and MVPA Compendium for Middle School Physical Education Activities

Abstract

IntroductionThe health benefits associated with physical activity (PA) for children and youth are well documented (Janssen & LeBlanc, 2010). As a result it is recommended that youth accumulate 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) each day (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2008) with at least 30 minutes of that being accumulated at school (Institute of Medicine, 2013).Daily PA has been shown to provide numerous benefits in children (Hills, Anderson & Byrne, 2011), yet the majority of the school day is spent in sedentary behaviors. PE provides a vehicle to obtain optimal levels of MVPA during school in children and adolescents, however less than 8% of public middle schools in the U.S. offer daily PE (Lee, Burgeson, Fulton, & Spain, 2007). Ideally, middle school youth will spend 50% of class time in MVPA (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009) or accumulate at least 82 steps/minute (Scruggs, 2013). For numerous reasons, few students actually meet these recommended levels (Nader, 2003).Over the past decade the pedometer has become a very popular instrument for surveilling PA patterns in youth (i.e. Brusseau & Hannon, 2013; Matthews, O'Neil, & Kostelis, 2014), as well as for evaluating interventions (i.e. Burns, Brusseau, & Hannon, 2015) because of their low cost and ease of use. Furthermore, many PE practitioners utilize pedometers as a tool for feedback and assessment during classes (Darst, Pangrazi, Brusseau, & Erwin, 2015). In fact, pedometers have been highlighted as a means of promoting PA in PE (Morgan, Pangrazi, & Beighle, 2003) and entire activity guides have been written around pedometer activities (Pangrazi, Beighle, & Sidman, 2003). Unfortunately, little evidence exists highlighting expected values that are being accumulated during PE lessons. To our knowledge only one study (Hannon & Ratliff, 2005) presented steps/minute for three (soccer, flag football, and Frisbee games) activities during high school PE classes. Therefore, the purpose of this manuscript was to establish expected step count and MVPA values for a variety of activities that are traditionally taught during middle school PE.Material & methodsParticipants and SettingData were collected on a convenience sample of 232 seventh and eighth grade students (61% Non-Hispanic Caucasian, 39% ethnic minority) from six PE classes (792 total lessons observed) recruited from one public middle-school located in a large metropolitan area in the Southwestern U.S.A. There were 88 girls and 144 boys who participated and the mean age of the sample was 13.3 ± 0.4 years. Written assent was obtained from the students and written consent was obtained from the parents prior to data collection. The University Institutional Review Board and school district approved the protocols used in this study.InstrumentationEach student's PA was monitored using NL-1000 piezoelectric pedometers (New Lifestyles Inc., Lee's Summit, MO, USA). The NL-1000 model recorded total number of steps and time (in minutes) of MVPA for the entirety of each PE lesson and has been previously validated for use in a pediatric population (Hart, Brusseau, Kulinna, McClain, & Tudor-Locke, 2011).ProceduresAll data collection took place over an entire school year and involved a total of 132 PE lessons. Each PE lesson was approximately 40 minutes in duration after excluding transition times for changing in and out of gym uniforms. PE was held 5 days a week (Monday through Friday). The curriculum involved a combination of motor skill games and health-related fitness activities. Units ranged in length but were typically 1-3 weeks long and were taught in both indoor and outdoor environments. Skill focused lessons included a warm-up, skill development through individual and small group static practice and small-sided skill games. Game days consisted primarily of a warm-up activity and multiple game playing opportunities. …