There was some evidence that school-based physical activity interventions had a positive impact on four of the nine outcome measures .
Specifically positive effects were observed for duration of physical activity , television viewing , VO2 max , and blood cholesterol .
Generally , school-based interventions had little effect on physical activity rates , systolic and diastolic blood pressure , BMI , and pulse rate .
At a minimum , a combination of printed educational material s and changes to the school curriculum that promote physical activity result ed in positive effects .
Few changes in outcomes were observed in this up date with the exception of blood cholesterol and physical activity rates .
For example blood cholesterol was no longer positively impacted upon by school-based physical activity interventions .
The evidence suggests the ongoing implementation of school-based physical activity interventions at this time , given the positive effects on behavior and one physical health status measure .
BACKGROUND The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 1.9 million deaths worldwide are attributable to physical inactivity and at least 2.6 million deaths are a result of being overweight or obese .
In addition , WHO estimates that physical inactivity causes 10 % to 16 % of cases each of breast cancer , colon , and rectal cancers as well as type 2 diabetes , and 22 % of coronary heart disease and the burden of these and other chronic diseases has rapidly increased in recent decades .
OBJECTIVES The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize the evidence of the effectiveness of school-based interventions in promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents .
The Stanford Adolescent Heart Health Program
This study was design ed to create , implement , and test a school-based multiple risk factor reduction program for high school students . All tenth grade rs in four senior high schools ( N = 1447 ) from two school districts participated in the study . Within each district , one school was assigned at r and om to receive a special 20-session CVD risk reduction intervention and one school served as a control . The schools were matched for size and distribution of racial groups before r and omization . At a two-month follow-up , knowledge gains were significantly greater for students in the treatment group on each of the risk factor domains tested : nutrition/diet ( p less than 0.0001 ) , physical activity ( p less than 0.0001 ) , and cigarette smoking ( p less than 0.0001 ) . Compared to controls , a higher proportion of those in the treatment group who were not exercising regularly at baseline , reported regular exercise at follow-up ( p less than 0.0003 ) . Almost twice as many baseline experimental smokers in the treatment group reported quitting at follow-up while only 5.6 % of baseline experimental smokers in the treatment group graduated to regular smoking compared to 10.3 % in the control group ( p = 0.009 ) . Students in the treatment group were more likely to report that they would choose heart healthy snack items ( p less than 0.0001 ) . Beneficial treatment effects were observed for resting heart rate ( p less than 0.0001 ) , BMI ( p = 0.05 ) , triceps skinfold thickness ( p = 0.003 ) , and subscapular skinfold thickness ( p = 0.01 ) . The results suggest that it is feasible to provide CVD risk reduction training to a large segment of the population through school-based primary prevention approaches
There was some evidence that school-based physical activity interventions had a positive impact on four of the nine outcome measures .
Specifically positive effects were observed for duration of physical activity , television viewing , VO2 max , and blood cholesterol .
Generally , school-based interventions had little effect on physical activity rates , systolic and diastolic blood pressure , BMI , and pulse rate .
At a minimum , a combination of printed educational material s and changes to the school curriculum that promote physical activity result ed in positive effects .
Few changes in outcomes were observed in this up date with the exception of blood cholesterol and physical activity rates .
For example blood cholesterol was no longer positively impacted upon by school-based physical activity interventions .
The evidence suggests the ongoing implementation of school-based physical activity interventions at this time , given the positive effects on behavior and one physical health status measure .
BACKGROUND The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 1.9 million deaths worldwide are attributable to physical inactivity and at least 2.6 million deaths are a result of being overweight or obese .
In addition , WHO estimates that physical inactivity causes 10 % to 16 % of cases each of breast cancer , colon , and rectal cancers as well as type 2 diabetes , and 22 % of coronary heart disease and the burden of these and other chronic diseases has rapidly increased in recent decades .
OBJECTIVES The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize the evidence of the effectiveness of school-based interventions in promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents .