1. Contribution of Physical Education to Physical Activity of Children
COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES
Contribution of Physical Education to Physical Activity of Children
Wesley Wilson1, Laynie Case2, Joonkoo Yun2, Kyle Robles2, & Ryan Willoughby2 1University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA & 2Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Introduction
The benefits of physical activity (PA) are well established (USDDHS, 2008); however, children and adolescents are not receiving enough PA to obtain the health benefits.
According to the CDC (2014), physical education (PE) should account for a “substantial percentage” of students’ overall PA.
Importantly, previous studies (e.g., Dale, Corbin, & Dale, 2000) have shown that PE is a major contributor of PA; however, many of these studies suffer from methodological limitations.
Sampling issues
Only examined school days
Single school
Collect data within two-week period (influenced by a single unit, not multiply)
Measurement
Pedometers
Did not account for reactivity
Results – cont.
Results – cont.
Instruments
Physical Activity Monitor
ActiGraph accelerometers (GT3X & GT1M)
Set to 15-sec epochs
Time spent in physical activity was estimated using cutpoints established by Evenson et al. (2008).
Table 3. Bonferroni adjusted pairwise comparison.
Aim 2
Table 1 shows the mean time spent in MVPA (minutes) by the day (PE and non-PE weekday and weekend day) while Table 2 shows the mean total counts by day.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics: MVPA by Day
Day
MVPA (min) SD
PE day
57.04
16.27
NPE day
44.89
18.83
WE day
35.36
21.47
Data Collection
Participants wore devices for 5 consecutive days, during 3 separate periods.
On 3 of the 5 days, data were collected (excluding first and fifth day)
At least 2 weeks passed between each data collection period.
Prior to data collection, participants received brief instructions on the use of the accelerometers
After each 5 day collection period, the researcher retrieved the devices
Note: PE = physical education; NPE = non-PE day; WE = weekend
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics: Total Counts by Day
Day
Total Counts SD
PE day
433,321
95,54
NPE day
371,742
105,366
WE day
317,191
129,710
Quality Control
Reminders
Accelerometer reliability testing
Devices with errors +/- 10% were not used
Further investigation is warranted to gain a better understanding of how PE contributes to PA not just in class, but as a factor in habitual physical activity (i.e., overall PA behavior).
Discussion
The results of Aim 1 and Aim 2 both support PE as a major contributor of PA for elementary children. Only occupying 30 minutes of the day, PE accounted for over 23% of daily MVPA and over 15% of total PA (i.e., energy expenditure as measured by accelerometry).
Children did not make up MVPA on non-PE days or weekends, further bolstering PE’s importance in the PA behavior of children.
These findings suggest that more PE classes should be added in order to increase PA levels instead of being systematically reduced.
Even as a major contributor, total MVPA was only minutes per day (Aim 1), under the recommended amount. Children may not be receiving the skills or motivation to be active outside of school (and PE class). This notion suggests that PE teachers need to do more to instill values and skills which promote out-of- class PA behavior.
A one-way repeated measures MANCOVA revealed significant differences between types of day on PA levels (Wilks’ λ=.68, p<.05; partial η2 = .32).
Follow-up univariate tests indicated significant differences between MVPA and types of days F(2, 76) = 4.49, p<.05; partial η2 = .11.
Although univariate tests only indicated significance with MVPA and days, a Bonferroni adjusted multiple pairwise comparison revealed significant differences between PE and non-PE days and between PE days and weekends days (Table 3).
Analysis
Dependent variables: total counts and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)
Independent variables: Day (three levels: PE weekdays, non PE weekdays, and weekend days)
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine PE’s contribution to overall PA behavior of third and fourth grade elementary students while addressing the limitations of prior studies through employing an accelerometer-based, multi-site research design.
Aim 1: Descriptive Statistics
Aim 2: One-way repeated measures MANCOVA
Covariates: class and gender
Aim 1:
Examined PE’s overall percent contribution to habitual PA behavior.
Aim 2:
Examined whether students compensated for missed PA opportunities on days in which they do not have PE.
On average, the participants received and more minutes of MVPA on PE days than on non-PE and weekend days, respectively (p<.01).
PE days yielded significantly (p<.01) higher total counts when compared to non-PE days and weekends (61579 and counts, respectively).
Results
Aim 1
Total MVPA: minutes per day (SD = 16.70)
PE accounted for 15.48% (SD = 4.86) of total counts.
PE accounted for 23.25% (SD = 9.26) of MVPA.
Participants
41 third and forth grade children across three school districts and four schools.
56% male & 44% female
Mean age: 9.23 (SD = .62)
Mean BMI: (SD = 4.70)
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Adapted Physical Activity Laboratory at Oregon State University.