The Impact of Organised Sport, Physical Education and Active Commuting on Physical Activity in a Sample of New Zealand Adolescent Females

Abstract

Background: The majority of adolescents do less physical activity than is recommended by the World Health Organization. Active commuting and participation in organised sport and/or physical education individually have been shown to increase physical activity in adolescents. However, how these domains impact physical activity both individually and in combination has yet to be investigated in a sample of New Zealand female adolescents from around the country. Methods: Adolescent females aged 15–18 y (n = 111) were recruited from 13 schools across eight locations throughout New Zealand to participate in this cross-sectional study. Participants completed questions about active commuting, and participation in organised sport and physical education, before wearing an Actigraph GT3X (Actigraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) +24 h a day for seven consecutive days to determine time spent in total, MVPA and light physical activity. Results: Active commuters accumulated 17 min/d (95% CI 8 to 26 min/d) more MVPA compared to those who did not. Those who participated in sport accumulated 45 min/d (95% CI 20 to 71 min/d) more light physical activity and 14 min/d (95% CI 5 to 23 min/d) more MVPA compared to those who did not. Participation in physical education did not seem to have a large impact on any component of physical activity. Participation in multiple domains of activity, e.g., active commuting and organised sport, was associated with higher accumulation of MVPA but not light activity. Conclusion Active commuting and sport both contribute a meaningful amount of daily MVPA. Sport participation has the potential to increase overall activity and displace sedentary behaviour. A combination of physical activity domains may be an important consideration when targeting ways to increase physical activity in adolescent females.

Contribution of active commuting to and from school to device‐measured physical activity levels in young people: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Of these 14 studies (n = 7127 participants), 11 had a crosssectional design, two had a longitudinal design, and one study had an intervention design. Regarding the country where these studies were conducted, four were carried out in the United Kingdom, [36][37][38][39] two each in the United States, 40,41 Canada, 42,43 Spain, 44,45 and in New Zealand, 46,47 and one study in The Netherlands. 48 Furthermore, one of the included studies was carried out in 12 different countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, India, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States).…”

“…49 A total of 42.9% (n = 6) of the included studies were conducted in children (n = 3525) [36][37][38][39]44,49 and 57.1% (n = 8) in adolescents (n = 3602). [40][41][42][43][45][46][47][48] Regarding trip direction, eight of the included studies only assessed the home-school trip, [36][37][38][39][42][43][44][45] and six of the included studies assessed both trips direction (i.e., home-school and school-home) 40,41,[46][47][48][49] (see Table 1 for more details). The device used to measure PA in all included studies was the accelerometer.…”

Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of domain-specific physical activity composition with health-related quality of life in childhood and adolescence in Australia

“…Some studies have investigated associations between three of these aforementioned PA domains (i.e., organized PA, non-organized PA, active transport) and health-related outcomes, although these studies were all cross-sectional in nature [ 18 - 22 ]. Several other studies have explored health-related associations for two of the aforementioned PA domains (i.e., organized PA, active transport), with most adopting cross-sectional methods [ 23 - 26 ], although some studies were longitudinal [ 27 - 29 ]. However to the authors’ knowledge, no existing studies have explored longitudinal associations between health-related outcomes and the duration of organized PA, non-organized PA, active transport and active chores/work in the same sample of youth.…”

Influence of Clil Bilingual Physical Education on the Engagement Motor Time

“…Desde los centros educativos existen numerosas propuestas llevadas a cabo para intentar dar respuesta a esta necesidad de la sociedad, como es el caso de recreos activos, descansos activos, transporte activo al centro, actividades extracurriculares, programas de deporte escolar, proyectos desde la acción tutorial, a través de las redes sociales e, incluso, aumentar las horas lectivas de la asignatura de EF, entre muchas otras, como el día del consumo de frutas y verduras. Todas estas medidas de manera aislada tienen resultados moderados, pero cuando se producen intervenciones multicomponente parecen tener un mayor grado de éxito (Gale et al, 2021;Van Sluijs et al, 2021).…”