A natural experiment to assess recess frequency on children’s physical activity in Arizona (U.S.) elementary schools

作者：Allison Poulos, Kylie Wilson, Marissa Schulke, Kahyun Nam, Punam Ohri‐Vachaspati, Yang Bai, Pamela Hodges Kulinna · 发表于：BMC Public Health · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1186/s12889-023-17605-4 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet、Urban Transport and Accessibility、Children's Physical and Motor Development

BACKGROUND: In the United States, the number of state policies mandating recess in schools has rapidly increased over the past decade; however, few policies specify recess frequency. Informed by an ecological model of physical activity (PA) policy, this study examined and compared total amounts and intensity of PA expended during recess among children attending schools in compliance with Arizona recess policy ARS§ 15-118 mandating 2 + daily recess periods versus not. METHODS: PA during recess was measured among grade three children (ages 8-10) in four randomly selected elementary schools (two complying averaging 30 daily recess minutes; two non-complying averaging 15 daily recess minutes) in Maricopa County, Arizona. Group-level PA was assessed by direct observation using the System for Observing Play and Leisure (137 observations). A subset of students (N = 134) from all schools wore ActiGraph GT3X + devices during recess to measure individual PA. General linear mixed effects models were used to analyze the impact of recess frequency on group and individual PA during recess. RESULTS: Students attending complying schools spent significantly greater proportions of time in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) based on direct observation (5%) and accelerometry (15%) and less time being sedentary based on accelerometry (14%) during recess. Across the school day, this would equate to 5.1 more MVPA minutes based on systematic direct observation and 9.5 more MVPA minutes based on accelero...