ChildObesity180, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Aug 30;18(1):992. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5889-4.
The majority of US children do not meet physical activity recommendations. Schools are an important environment for promoting physical activity in children, yet most school districts do not offer enough physical activity opportunities to meet recommendations. This study aimed to identify school districts across the country that demonstrated exemplary efforts to provide students with many physical activity opportunities and to understand the factors that facilitated their programmatic success.
A total of 59 districts were identified as model districts by members of the Physical Activity and Health Innovation Collaborative, an ad hoc activity associated with the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with consenting stakeholders from 23 school districts to understand physical education and activity efforts and elucidate factors that led to the success of these districts' physical activity programming. Districts were geographically and socioeconomically diverse and varied in their administrative and funding structure.
Most districts did not offer the recommended 150 or 225 min of physical activity a week through physical education alone; yet all districts offered a range of programs outside of physical education that provided additional opportunities for students to be physically active. The average number of school-based physical activity programs offered was 5.5, 3.5 and 2.1 for elementary, middle and high schools, respectively. Three overarching and broadly relevant themes were identified that were associated with successfully enhancing physical activity opportunities for students: soliciting and maintaining the support of champions, securing funding and/or tangible support, and fostering bi-directional partnerships between the district and community organizations and programs. Not only were these three themes critical for the development of physical activity opportunities, but they also remained important for the implementation, evaluation and sustainability of programs. These themes also did not differ substantially by the socioeconomic status of districts.
These findings demonstrate the success of school districts across the nation in providing ample opportunities for physical activity despite considerable variability in socioeconomic status and resources. These results can inform future research and provide actionable evidence for school districts to enhance physical activity opportunities to students.
大多数美国儿童不符合身体活动建议。学校是促进儿童身体活动的重要环境，但大多数学区没有提供足够的身体活动机会来满足建议。本研究旨在确定全国范围内表现出为学生提供许多身体活动机会的模范努力的学区，并了解促进其计划成功的因素。
共有 59 个学区被身体活动和健康创新合作组织的成员确定为模范学区，该组织是国家科学院、工程院和医学院肥胖解决方案圆桌会议的一项特别活动。对 23 个学区的利益相关者进行了半结构化访谈，以了解体育教育和活动工作，并阐明导致这些学区身体活动计划成功的因素。这些学区在地理位置和社会经济方面存在差异，其行政和资金结构也各不相同。
大多数学区没有通过体育课单独提供每周 150 或 225 分钟的推荐身体活动量；然而，所有学区都在体育课之外提供了一系列项目，为学生提供了更多的身体活动机会。平均提供的基于学校的身体活动项目数量分别为小学、初中和高中 5.5、3.5 和 2.1 个。确定了三个总体上广泛相关的主题，这些主题与成功增加学生的身体活动机会有关：争取和维持拥护者的支持，确保资金和/或有形支持，以及促进学区与社区组织和项目之间的双向合作关系。这三个主题不仅对身体活动机会的发展至关重要，而且对项目的实施、评估和可持续性也很重要。这些主题在学区的社会经济地位方面也没有太大差异。
这些发现表明，尽管社会经济地位和资源存在相当大的差异，但全国范围内的学区在为学生提供充足的身体活动机会方面取得了成功。这些结果可以为未来的研究提供信息，并为学区提供增强学生身体活动机会的可操作证据。
