The Medical College of Georgia Fitkid project: the relations between program attendance and changes in outcomes in year 1

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relations of attendance of children in an after-school physical activity (PA) program to changes in body composition and cardiovascular fitness (CVF).

Design: Eight-month after-school PA-based intervention.

Subjects: In all, 278 third-grade boys and girls from nine elementary schools (age, 8.7 y (s.d. = 0.6 y), body mass index (BMI) 19.1 kg/m2 (s.d. = 4.4) and percent body fat (%BF) 26.0 (s.d. = 9.0)).

Measurements: Body composition (from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), BMI (from height and weight), waist circumference (WC) and CVF (from the YMCA submaximal bench-stepping test).

Results: There was a significant negative linear trend between level of attendance in the after-school program and change in %BF and fat mass; there was also a significant positive linear trend between program attendance and change in CVF. There was a marginally significant linear trend between program attendance and fat-free mass. Greater increases in bone mineral density were observed with higher program attendance. Changes in BMI and WC were not influenced by program attendance.

Conclusion: Understanding the dose-response effect of PA on health outcomes, particularly body composition, in children is crucial in our effort to prevent overweight and its health consequences. Since there is limited data available to base PA dose recommendations for youths, findings from this study are relevant, and suggest that greater health benefits can be obtained in young children with more frequent participation in PA.