Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 39, Issue 1, July 2004, Pages 157-163
Preventive Medicine

Non-curricular approaches for increasing physical activity in youth: a review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.01.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Background. To prevent obesity, the physical activity of youth should be increased. Since time for school physical education has declined and curricular interventions have had limited effects, alternative non-curriculum approaches need to be tested.

Methods. A systematic review was conducted to identify research that evaluated the effectiveness of non-curricular interventions on the physical activity of children and adolescents.

Results. Results showed that children were active during school break periods and inexpensive interventions further increased activity during these times. Active travel to school offered potential, but its effectiveness was impaired by traffic congestion and parental fears for child safety. Extracurricular, school-based interventions had problems with low attendance, which might be removed if delivered through existing community organizations. Summer day camps offered potential for increasing activity of youth, but research is required to determine how best to convert camp activity into increased post-camp habitual activity.

Conclusions. Physical activity can be increased during school break periods, through existing youth organizations, summer day camps, and possibly through active transportation. Future research should focus on further enhancing the effectiveness of these innovative interventions.

Introduction

The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents is increasing in the United States [1]. Obesity during childhood increases the risks of adult obesity [2] and cardiovascular disease [3]. Obesity is the result of an imbalance between energy consumed and energy expended. Physical activity, which has been defined as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that result in caloric expenditure”[4], increases energy expenditure and can help prevent obesity [5], but physical activity declines throughout childhood [6]. As American youth are becoming increasingly inactive, there is a need to develop strategies to increase the amount of physical activity in which both children and adolescents engage.

Numerous intervention studies have attempted to increase child or adolescent physical activity by implementing school-based interventions in physical education [7], [8], [9] or by targeting changing the characteristics of students [10] in physical education. These school physical education-based intervention studies have enjoyed some success [7], [10], [11], but, as a result of pressure to pass standardized tests, the school time allocated to physical education [7], [10], [11] has been reduced [12], [13]. Non-curricular approaches may offer promise for increasing physical activity at school. Non-curriculum approaches are defined as interventions that did not focus upon modifications to school physical or health education. An earlier review article highlighted locations where non-curriculum school-based physical activity could potentially take place [14]. Few investigators, however, evaluated non-curricular interventions.

Achieving a minimum of 30 min/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (the standard set by the CDC and the American College of Sports Medicine [15]) could be attained by modest increases in activity at times that may not normally be thought of as activity opportunities, for example, school break periods or travel to and from school. This article (1) examines the effectiveness of non-curricular interventions for promoting physical activity and (2) identifies factors that positively and negatively affected their success.

Section snippets

Methods

A literature search was conducted for non-curricular approaches to increasing physical activity in children and adolescents that were published in the English language between 1970 and 2002. This search included computerized searches of online databases (Pub Med, Med Line), manual searches, and contacting leading authors in the field for copies of articles In Press. As any increase in the amount of physical activity in which children and adolescents engaged is likely to result in health

Results

Summaries of the intervention studies that met the inclusion criteria are shown in Table 1. The table includes the first author, year, study name, participants, intervention, method used to record physical activity, and the results. The results of these studies are presented in more detail below.

Discussion

These studies revealed some limited success and many possibilities for further development. Each of these issues and the implications for future interventions studies are discussed in turn.

Acknowledgements

The writing of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS TURSG-01). This work is also a publication of the USA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX. This project has been funded in part by federal funds from the USDA/ARS under co-operative agreement 58-6250-6001. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or polices of the USDA,

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