Czerwinski Fabian, Finne Emily, Kolip Petra, Bucksch Jens
Bielefeld University, School of Public Health, PO Box 100131, Bielefeld, D-33501, Germany.
BMC Public Health. 2015 Apr 17;15:393. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1715-4.
Young people spend half of their days in school, but evidence concerning the influence of school environment on the physical activity (PA) of pupils is still inconsistent. A better understanding of potential correlates of PA on the school-level and their possible interaction with individual aspects is needed to improve the development of more effective interventions.
We used data from the 2009/10 German Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC)-sample (n=5,005 students aged 11-15 years) including self-reported moderate to vigorous intensity PA as well as a variety of biological, demographic and behavioral correlates and matched them with school-level data from the national school principals' HBSC questionnaire. We analyzed the associations of individual- and school-level correlates with MVPA by gender-specific multi-level regression.
Only a small share of the overall variation in student's PA was attributable to the school-level. Consequently, the associations of individual-level correlates with PA were stronger than those of the school-level. Our analysis revealed significant associations of individual-level (i.e. age, consumption of softdrinks, overweight) as well as school-level correlates (i.e. the availability of a football ground and a swimming pool) with MVPA. We also observed some gender-specific findings especially for the school level correlates. Cross-level interactions between individual- and school-level were not apparent.
Our findings indicate the usefulness of applying an ecological framework to understand and explain complex health behaviors like PA. As we found gender-specific association it might be important to acknowledge that boys and girls have specific needs to be more physically active. Further research should also take other features/elements of the school environment and neighborhood as well as socio-cognitive correlates into account to advance the field.
年轻人一半的时间都在学校度过，但关于学校环境对学生身体活动（PA）影响的证据仍然不一致。为了改进更有效干预措施的制定，需要更好地了解学校层面PA的潜在相关因素及其与个体因素可能的相互作用。
我们使用了2009/10年德国学龄儿童健康行为研究（HBSC）样本（n = 5,005名11 - 15岁学生）的数据，其中包括自我报告的中等至剧烈强度PA以及各种生物学、人口统计学和行为学相关因素，并将其与来自全国中小学校长HBSC问卷的学校层面数据进行匹配。我们通过按性别分层的多水平回归分析了个体和学校层面相关因素与中等至剧烈强度身体活动（MVPA）之间的关联。
学生PA的总体变化中只有一小部分可归因于学校层面。因此，个体层面相关因素与PA的关联比学校层面更强。我们的分析揭示了个体层面（即年龄、软饮料消费、超重）以及学校层面相关因素（即足球场和游泳池的可用性）与MVPA之间存在显著关联。我们还观察到一些特定性别的结果，特别是关于学校层面的相关因素。个体和学校层面之间的跨层面相互作用并不明显。
我们的研究结果表明应用生态框架来理解和解释像PA这样复杂的健康行为是有用的。由于我们发现了特定性别的关联，认识到男孩和女孩在增加身体活动方面有特定需求可能很重要。进一步的研究还应考虑学校环境和社区的其他特征/要素以及社会认知相关因素，以推动该领域的发展。
