Increasing Children’s Physical Activity During the School Day

Insufficient levels of daily physical activity (PA) among children in the USA and worldwide have profound implications for pediatric obesity and children’s health and well-being more generally. Public health recommendations highlight the central role that schools play in providing equitable opportun...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Current obesity reports Vol. 4; no. 2; pp. 147 - 156
Main Authors:	Hatfield, Daniel Philip, Chomitz, Virginia Rall
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York Springer US 01-06-2015
Subjects:	Behavioral Therapy Cardiology Child Diabetes Endocrinology Exercise Health Behavior Health Promotion - methods Humans Medicine Medicine & Public Health Metabolic Diseases Obesity Prevention (A Must Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control Schools Section Editor Students Topical Collection on Obesity Prevention Policy Children Physical activity Physical education Schools Sports
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Summary:	Insufficient levels of daily physical activity (PA) among children in the USA and worldwide have profound implications for pediatric obesity and children’s health and well-being more generally. Public health recommendations highlight the central role that schools play in providing equitable opportunities for PA for all children. This review identifies evidence-based approaches for increasing children’s PA throughout the school day and discusses multilevel factors that support implementation of such approaches. Opportunities to increase school-day PA span not only in-school time (e.g., quality recess and physical education, classroom activity breaks) but also time before school (e.g., active commuting initiatives) and after school (e.g., intramural and interscholastic sports programs). For such approaches to impact children’s PA, dimensions of implementation such as adoption, fidelity, penetration, implementation costs, and sustainability are critical. Multilevel factors that influence implementation include policies, school environment and organizational factors, teacher and classroom factors, child and family characteristics, and attributes of the PA approach itself. Research and field observations reinforce the importance of understanding challenges specific to working with schools, including multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, limited facilities and staff capacity, and heterogeneity of students. Thus, while schools hold promise as promoters and equalizers of PA engagement for all children, more research is needed on the levers that influence implementation of effective school-based PA policies and programs.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:	2162-4968 2162-4968
DOI:	10.1007/s13679-015-0159-6