Relationship Between Break-Time Physical Activity, Age, and Sex in a Rural Primary Schools, Wales, UK

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the physical activity during the break-times of primary school children in rural areas, and its relationship with age and sex. 380 children (192 boys and 188 girls; age=9.5±1.1 years) participated in the study. Break-time physical activity in the morning and lunch breaks was measured by accelerometry. An ANOVA was used to determine differences by sex in each age group, together with the respective confidence intervals and effect sizes. The results showed that 8-year-olds performed more physical exercise than 11-year-olds during the two breaks (p=0.005). For the boys, the 8-year-olds did more physical activity than the 10-year-olds, while, for the girls, those aged 8 and 9 years did more PA than girls aged 11 years (p<0.001). The only difference between boys and girls was for the 10-year-olds (p=0.043), with the boys doing more physical activity. Teachers might find it useful to take these findings into account to design physical activity programmes aimed at increasing the playground physical activity of older children.

Influence of school playground size and equipment on the physical activity of students during recess

“…The fact that the results are not conclusive may be due to the type of equipment each study investigates (Escalante et al, 2014b) or the different types of games (Escalante et al, 2012; Strong et al, 2005). This may also be attributed to age and gender (Escalante et al, 2011), physical and social factors related to family (Escalante et al, 2014a; Maitland et al, 2013) and culture, and each school’s play habits and policy. Taylor et al (2011) did not observe any impact of school policies on students’ PA during recess time.…”

Outcomes of the Rope Skipping ‘STAR’ Programme for Schoolchildren

“…Opportunities to increase PA in school include time before school lessons as well as recess ( Ridgers et al, 2006 , 2011 ). Recess has been of particular interest as previous research has shown that children conduct around 50% of their school-based PA during this period ( Escalante et al, 2014 ), and may gain between 5–40% of recommended daily PA during this time ( Ridgers et al, 2006 ). Therefore, strategies targeted to increase students’ PA during recess are needed.…”

Incidencia del periodo vacacional de navidad en el estado ponderal de escolares de primaria

“…El establecimiento de rutinas como por ejemplo levantarse para ir a clase, el desplazamiento activo a los centros educativos 24,25 , el realizar dos horas de práctica de AF (educación física) a la semana, los períodos de recreo donde se favorece el movimiento del alumnado 14,26 o la participación en actividades extraescolares 27 como los programas institucionalizados "Escuelas Deportivas" de las comunidades autónomas (2 horas semanales) son factores que inciden directamente sobre el control del IMC del alumnado.…”