Five for Life: Evaluating the Effect of an Activity-Based Fitness and Health Curricula Program on Physical Fitness, Physical Activity, Health-related Knowledge, and Attitudinal Outcomes

FIVE FOR LIFE-. EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF AN ACTIVITY-BASED FITNESS AND HEALTH CURRICULA PROGRAM ON PHYSICAL FITNESS, HEALTH-RELATED KNOWLEDGE, AND ATTITUDINAL OUTCOMES Kimberly G. Baskette Old Dominion University 2013 Co-Directors: Dr. Philip Reed Dr. Ginger Watson Currently, childhood obesity is the largest health threat facing youth in the United States. The majority of youth fail to meet the minimum recommended daily physical activity requirements set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Poor physical fitness levels and nutritional habits are also prevalent in today’s youth. Schools have been identified as playing a crucial role in providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors and attitudes. School-based Health and Physical Education (HPE) programs, focused on promoting physical activity, fitness, and nutrition, have been shown to be an effective environment for students to be physically active and to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to adopt and sustain a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the extent to which supplementation of an elementary school Health and Physical Education program with the Five fo r Life activity-based curricula program affected students’ health-related fitness levels, knowledge of fitness and nutrition concepts and attitudes towards physical education, and overall health and wellness. The Five for Life program was adopted in 2009 by a large, affluent, urban school district in the Southeastern U.S. as part of the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant. For the purposes o f the implementation across the school district, the elementary schools were clustered into three cohorts consisting of 18,15, and 19 elementary schools, respectively. This research study utilized post hoc Five fo r Life program data. The design of this study allowed the researcher to evaluate the effect of the program across four study variables. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test, part of the statewide FITNESSGRAM testing, was used to assess cardiorespiratory endurance levels while three-day Physical Activity Recall (3DPAR) logs were utilized to evaluate physical activity levels at base, heart health, and maximum intensity levels. Pre/post assessments were employed to measure student knowledge o f fitness and nutrition and an attitudinal survey assessed students’ health-related attitudes as well as their attitudes towards their health and physical education (HPE) class. Data used in the analysis of cardiorespiratory endurance and knowledge was comprised of 4th grade students (n=l,179) enrolled in Cohort I schools. The survey data consisted of the same group of Cohort 14th grade students (n=1,827). The physical activity data was collected from 5th grade students across all three cohorts during year one of program implementation; Cohort I (n=1,552) was collected during the 2009-10 academic year, Cohort II (n= 1,621) during the 2010-11 academic year, and Cohort III (n=l,640) during the 2011-12 academic year. The analysis utilized a three-level Hierarchical Linear model to estimate the effects of the Five for Life curricula program on student outcomes as well as the impact of student-level covariates (i.e. age and gender) and school-level covariates (i.e. schoolSES) on student growth trajectories. Results from the study showed significant improvements in 4th grade students’ cardiorespiratory endurance levels, when controlling