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Research Study Abstract
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School-Day and Overall Physical Activity Among Youth
- Published on August 1, 2013
Background:
Increasing school-day physical activity through policy and programs is commonly
suggested to prevent obesity and improve overall child health. However,
strategies that focus on school-day physical activity may not increase total
physical activity if youth compensate by reducing physical activity outside of
school.
Purpose:
Objectively measured, nationally representative physical activity data were used
to test the hypothesis that higher school-day physical activity is associated
with higher overall daily physical activity in youth.
Methods:
Accelerometer data from 2003–2004/2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition
Examination Surveys were analyzed in 2012 to estimate physical activity levels
during the school day (8am–3pm) among youth aged 6–19 years (n=2548).
Fixed-effects regressions were used to estimate the impact of changes in
school-day minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on changes
in total daily MVPA.
Results:
Each additional minute of school-day MVPA was associated with an additional 1.14
minutes (95% CI=1.04, 1.24; p<0.001) of total daily MVPA, or 0.14 additional
minutes (95% CI=0.04, 0.24; p=0.008) outside the school day, controlling for
total daily accelerometer wear time and age, gender, race/ethnicity, and other
non–time varying covariates. There were no differences in the effect of
school-day MVPA on total MVPA by age group, gender, race/ethnicity, poverty
status, or degree of change in MVPA.
Conclusions:
Higher school-day MVPA was associated with higher daily MVPA among U.S. youth
with no evidence for same-day “compensation.” Increasing school-based physical
activity is a promising approach that can improve total daily physical activity
levels of youth.
Journal
American Journal of Preventive Medicine