Association of School Physical Activity Policies With Student Physical Activity Behavior

Association of Walking and Biking to School Policies and Active Commuting to School in Children

BACKGROUND

Active commuting to school (ACS) can be an important source of physical activity for children. Schools are an important setting for policy-related ACS promotion. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between school policies and ACS, and to assess whether this relation varied by grade.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study used data from schools recruited to the Safe Travel Environment Evaluation in Texas School study (n = 94). The percent of trips made by active travel modes was measured through tallies among third to fifth grade classrooms from 5 school districts in Central Texas in 2018-2019. School ACS policies and practices were measured through 8 survey items aggregated into a score. Linear mixed effects models were used to assess the association between policies and ACS.

RESULTS

School health policy surveys and ACS data were collected from 69 elementary schools. An average of 14.6% of trips to/from school was made using active travel modes. Schools with higher numbers of policies had significantly higher percentages of students using active travel modes (P = .03), and for each additional policy, the predicted percentage of trips made by active travel modes was 1.46% higher. There was a significant interaction effect between school policy and grade, with stronger correlations among higher grades (P = .002).

CONCLUSIONS

Results from this study demonstrate a correlation between the school policies designed to support walking and biking and ACS. Results from this study can be used to justify the use of school-based policy interventions to promote ACS.

Physical activity strategies in low-resource elementary schools: Why and how are they prioritized?

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Schools prioritize physical activity (PA) to advance learning and health goals.

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Existing policies governing PA and physical education help justify the need for PA.

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A schools culture of learning and health helps promote the value of PA.

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Convincing stakeholders to accept the value of PA is essential to implementation.

Most US children do not achieve the recommended daily 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA). Schools are ideal settings to promote PA given their reach to large child populations, including students with less resources and limited access to PA opportunities. Although limited in numbers, schools that offer enough PA strategies can provide insights to increase PA in these settings. However, few studies have examined why and how these schools successfully prioritize PA strategies, particularly schools serving socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations. This qualitative study of low-resource, PA-supportive schools was conducted during 2017–2018 to obtain in-depth information about why and how schools make decisions to prioritize and implement PA strategies. Forty-two study participants in 17 states plus Washington DC were recruited. Content analysis revealed the following themes: (1) Schools prioritize PA because it helps advance learning and health goals; (2) Policies and standards for PA/PE reinforce the importance of PA; (3) A culture of learning and health advances decisions to offer PA; (4) Advocates play a key role in generating support to integrate PA; (5) Stakeholder buy-in enables decisions to offer PA opportunities; (6) Collaboration focused on PA specifically can facilitate decisions to increase PA strategies; and (7) Funding and resources drive decisions to put PA strategies into practice. The study findings offer insights that may be useful in efforts to increase access to PA opportunities in low-resource elementary schools.

School policies and practices associated with Thai children's overall and domain specific physical activity

School has a significant role in providing opportunities for children to engage in physical activity (PA) through policies and practices. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of school policies and practices related to physical activity (PA) and their association with Thai students’ overall and domain specific PA. This cross-sectional analysis included 5,830 students aged 6–17 years from 136 schools recruited though a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling across Thailand. Student’s PA data were assessed using a student survey and school data were collected by a principal survey. Associations between students’ PA and school variables were examined using logistic regressions. Despite a high prevalence of Thai schools reporting many policies and practices promoting PA in different areas, students reported low levels of PA. None of the school PA policies and practices was associated with students’ overall and domain specific activities, with active transport as the one exception. When schools had an active transport policy, students were 40% (OR = 1.40, p = 0.01) more likely to travel actively to/from school. The identified positive relationship between school active transport policy and students’ active travel behavior suggests a potential wider adoption of the policy promoting school active transport aiming to increase student’s PA levels among all Thai schools. Intervention studies are necessary to confirm this finding. Our study also reflected that, for greater levels of children’s school-based PA, strategies to translate the existing school PA policies into effective implementation should be an emphasis for Thai schools.

Program Evaluation of Environmental and Policy Approaches to Physical Activity Promotion in a Lower Income Latinx School District in Southeast Los Angeles

There is alarming population wide prevalence of low adolescent physical activity as this represents a risk factor for later chronic disease development. There is evidence to suggest that schools with strong wellness policies have students that are more frequently active. We designed an intervention to enhance students' physical activity levels in five majority Latinx, underserved school districts. Evaluation consisted of assessment of written quality of school-district wellness policies; observation of student's physical activity during leisure times; and after-school program practices and policies. We examined one of these district's results more closely, the only participating district with a community coalition, and extracted lessons learned. On the physical activity section of the wellness policy, this district covered a moderate extent of recommended content areas using weak language. Compared to previous reports, we identified low vigorous activity levels for girls and boys at baseline (respectively, 12% and 18%). Finally, we identified that of four after school program sites assessed at baseline, no program reported the recommended 50% or more of program time dedicated to physical activity. Based on these evaluation findings, additional strategies are urgently needed to encourage all students and particularly more girls to be physically active throughout the school day.

Global Matrix 3.0 physical activity report card for children and youth: a comparison across Europe

OBJECTIVES

The Global Matrix of report card grades on physical activity serves as a public health awareness tool by summarising the status of child and youth physical activity prevalence and action. The objectives were to: (1) provide a detailed examination of the evidence informing the 'School' and 'Community and Environment' indicators across all participating European Global Matrix 3.0 countries; (2) explore the comparability of the grades for these two indicators across Europe; (3) detail any limitations or issues with the methods used to assign grades; and (4) provide suggestions on how future grading of the indicators could be improved.

STUDY DESIGN

A comparative review of published methods on the grading of Global Matrix 3.0 indicators across European countries.

METHODS

Key documents relating to the European countries involved in the 2018 Global Matrix 3.0 were collated and a template used to extract data for both the 'School' and 'Community and Environment' indicators.

RESULTS

Seventeen of the 20 European Report Card countries (85%) had a grade for schools, and 15 countries (75%) had a grade for community and environment. All countries considered between one and five factors when assigning the grade for these indicators. There were wide disparities in the number and sources of evidence used to assign the grades for both indicators, limiting the comparability of the evidence between different countries.

CONCLUSION

To enable comparability, the authors recommend moving towards an agreed standardised set of metrics for grading each indicator. Furthermore, it would be useful to develop and share common tools, methods and instruments to collect data in a uniform way across countries, where possible. Such action will ultimately make the Global Matrix a more robust and useful tool for the future.