Background: Teachers are recognized as 'key agents' for the delivery of physical activity programs and policies in schools. The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate a tool to assess teachers' capability, opportunity, and motivation to deliver school-based physical activity interventions.
Methods: The development and evaluation of the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation to deliver Physical Activity in School Scale (COM-PASS) involved three phases.
Background: Active travel and school settings are considered ideal for promoting physical activity. However, previous research suggests limited effect of school-based interventions on overall physical activity levels among adolescents. The relationship between physical activity in different domains remains inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physically active learning (PAL) has emerged as a promising way of eliciting health and education-based outcomes for pupils. Concurrently, research suggests large variability in how PAL is perceived, operationalized, and prioritized in practice across Europe. Therefore, this study aimed to co-develop a framework for action to support the adoption and implementation of PAL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While there have been several school-based physical activity (PA) interventions targeting improvement in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, few have assessed long-term effects. The aim of this paper was therefore to determine intervention effects on CVD risk factors 5 years after cessation.
Methods: Two schools were assigned to intervention (n = 125) or control (n = 134).
Aims: This cross-sectional study investigated the association between health-related quality of life (HRQoL), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscular fitness in 14-year-old adolescents.
Methods: Norwegian adolescents (N = 1985) carried out a 10-min running test to assess cardiorespiratory fitness and three different muscular fitness tests (handgrip, sit-ups, and standing broad jump) and answered the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire to provide HRQoL data. Linear-mixed effect models were applied to detect relationships among the variables.
Introduction/purpose: Recess represents a prime opportunity for physical activity during the school day. However, evidence is mixed with regard to factors associated with activity during recess.
Methods: Data were collected as a part of the Texas Initiative for Children's Activity and Nutrition (I-CAN!) program from 14 elementary schools and 1,049 4-grade students.
Prev Med Rep
December 2021
Little information exists on the mechanism of how physical activity interventions effects academic performance. We examined whether the effects of a school-based physical activity intervention on academic performance were mediated by aerobic fitness. The School in Motion study was a nine-month cluster randomized controlled trial between September 2017 and June 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physically active learning (PAL) - integration of movement within delivery of academic content - is a core component of many whole-of-school physical activity approaches. Yet, PAL intervention methods and strategies vary and frequently are not sustained beyond formal programmes. To improve PAL training, a more comprehensive understanding of the behavioural and psychological processes that influence teachers' adoption and implementation of PAL is required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAerobic fitness (AF) and lipoprotein subclasses associate to each other and to cardiovascular health. Adiposity and physical activity (PA) influence the association pattern of AF to lipoproteins almost inversely making it difficult to assess their independent and joint influence on the association pattern. This study, including 841 children (50% boys) 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is an adverse cross-sectional association between sedentary time, physical activity (PA) and adiposity, but weak and inconsistent estimates raise question to the direction of associations. The present study aims to examine whether the prospective association between sedentary time, different PA intensities and indicators of adiposity is bi-directional. The Active Smarter Kids Study obtained data from 869 ten-year-old children with valid measurements for sedentary time, PA, and adiposity at baseline and follow-up.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLipoprotein subclasses possess crucial cardiometabolic information. Due to strong multicollinearity among variables, little is known about the strength of influence of physical activity (PA) and adiposity upon this cardiometabolic pattern. Using a novel approach to adjust for covariates, we aimed at determining the "net" patterns and strength for PA and adiposity to the lipoprotein profile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
May 2021
Background: School-based physical activity interventions evaluating the effect on academic performance usually includes children. We aimed to investigate the effect of a nine-month, school-based physical activity intervention titled School in Motion (ScIM) on academic performance in adolescents.
Methods: Thirty secondary schools in Norway were cluster-randomized into three groups: the Physically active learning (PAL) group (n = 10), the Don't worry - Be Happy (DWBH) group (n = 10) or control (n = 10).
Objectives: The aim was to determine the independent associations of muscular fitness (MF), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and waist circumference (WC) with blood pressure (BP) levels over 2 years in children and adolescents.
Methods: 1089 children (517 females) and 787 adolescents (378 females) with complete data on fitness, WC and BP (systolic [SBP] and diastolic [DBP]) were included. Upper MF was assessed through the handgrip strength test, and lower MF using the standing long jump test.
Background And Aims: The associations between aerobic fitness and traditional measures of lipid metabolism in children are uncertain. We investigated whether higher levels of aerobic fitness benefit lipoprotein metabolism by exploring associations with a comprehensive lipoprotein particle profile.
Methods: In our prospective cohort study, we used targeted proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) spectroscopy to profile 57 measures of lipoprotein metabolism from fasting serum samples of 858 fifth-grade Norwegian schoolchildren (49.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
January 2021
Background: A large majority of primary school pupils fail to achieve 30-min of daily, in-school moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The aim of this study was to investigate MVPA accumulation and subject frequency during academic lesson segments and the broader segmented school day.
Methods: 122 children (42.
Background: Physical activity (PA) declines throughout adolescence, therefore PA promotion during this period is important. We analyzed the effect of two school-based PA interventions on daily PA levels, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength among adolescents.
Methods: For the nine-month School in Motion intervention study (ScIM), we cluster-randomized 30 Norwegian secondary schools (N = 2084, mean age [SD] = 14 [0.
Front Psychol
July 2020
Introduction: There is a dearth of high-quality evidence on effective, sustainable, and scalable interventions to increase physical activity (PA) and concomitant outcomes in preschoolers. Specifically, there is a need to better understand how the preschool context can be used to increase various types of physically active play to promote holistic child development. The implementation of such interventions requires highly competent preschool staffs, however, the competence in promoting PA is often low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Low and high birth weight is associated with higher levels of cardiometabolic risk factors and adiposity in children and adolescents, and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and early mortality later in life. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is associated with lower cardiometabolic risk factors and may mitigate the detrimental consequences of high or low birth weight. Thus, we examined whether MVPA modified the associations between birth weight and cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: UK and global policies recommend whole-school approaches to improve childrens' inadequate physical activity (PA) levels. Yet, recent meta-analyses establish current interventions as ineffective due to suboptimal implementation rates and poor sustainability. To create effective interventions, which recognise schools as complex adaptive sub-systems, multi-stakeholder input is necessary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in physical activity (PA), physical fitness and psychosocial well-being in early adolescents following implementation of a school-based health promotion program in secondary schools.
Methods: Six municipalities in Telemark County, Norway, were recruited into intervention (6 schools) or control groups (9 schools). A total of 644 pupils participated in the study (response rate: 79%).
Purpose: To identify co-produced multi-stakeholder perspectives important for successful widespread physically active learning (PAL) adoption and implementation.
Methods: A total of 35 stakeholders (policymakers = 9; commercial education sector, = 8; teachers, = 3; researchers, = 15) attended a design thinking PAL workshop. Participants formed 5 multi-disciplinary groups with at least 1 representative from each stakeholder group.
When analysing physical activity (PA) levels using accelerometry, the epoch setting is critical to capture intensity-specific PA correctly. The aim of the present study was to investigate the PA intensity signatures related to metabolic health in children using different epoch settings. A sample of 841 Norwegian children (age 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe onset of cardiometabolic diseases are recognized to occur in childhood. We aimed to investigate the effect of a school-based cluster-randomized controlled trial of physical activity (PA) on single and clustered cardiometabolic risk factors. We included 1129 fifth-grade children from 57 schools (≥seven children in each class) in Sogn and Fjordane County, Norway, randomized to 28 intervention schools and 29 control schools.
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