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THE EFFECTS OF EARLY-CHILDHOOD PHYSICAL EDUCATION ON MODERATE-VIGOROUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVELS AND SEDENTARY TIME

Abstract

Eric M. Scudamore1, Nauman Jiwani1, Scott R. Doig1, Veronika Pribyslavska1 1Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR

Arkansas has a relatively high prevalence of obesity and chronic disease in children and adult populations. The implementation of structured physical education(PE)during early childhood may develop movement and sport skills during critical development ages. This could promote active lifestyles and be an efficient means of combating the onset of disease later in life. PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of a 12-week PE intervention on moderate-vigorous physical activity (MPVA) levels and sedentary time (SED) of preschool students. METHODS: Sixty preschool students 3-5 years old were divided into three groups that received either 5, 3, or 0 days of PE per week for 12 weeks. Participants wore triaxial accelerometers on the right hip fixated above the iliac crest. Devices were worn 4consecutive days for ~7 hours the week before and after the PE intervention. Accelerometers assessed MVPA and SED. Participants data was only included if they accumulated ≥6 hours of non-zero counts for 3wear days. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to identify differences among groups in MVPA and SED between pre-and post-intervention data. RESULTS: Valid accelerometry data was collected for 37 participants. Descriptive statistics can be found in Table 1. Analyses indicated that there was no significant time effect for MVPA levels (F(1,37) = 0.13, p =0.72,ηp2= 0.003)and no significant interaction between time and intervention level (F(2,37) = 1.34, p = .28, ηp2= .07). Similarly, there was no significant effect for SED (F(1,37) = 1.43, p= 0.24,ηp2= 0.04) and no significant interaction between time and intervention level (F(2,37) = 1.16, p= 0.33,ηp2= .06). CONCLUSION: A 12-week PE intervention did not affect activity levels in pre-school children. Longitudinal application of PE may be required to elicit significant changes in habitual MVPA and SED during early childhood.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This study was partially funded by ‘ABI Undergraduate Research Scholar Program’ sponsored by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and the Child Development Research Center at Arkansas State University.

Additional Files
Scudamore Table 1.docx (196 kB)
Table 1

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