Long-term effects of daily physical education throughout compulsory school on duration of physical activity in young adulthood: an 11-year prospective controlled study

Abstract

Objectives: We examined whether daily physical activity (PA) during compulsory school encourages children to be more physically active during the intervention and 4 years after termination of the programme.

Methods: This prospective controlled intervention study followed the same 124 children (81 children in an intervention group and 43 controls) aged 7.7±0.6 (mean±SD) during a 7-year PA intervention and 4 years after the intervention when the children were 18.7±0.3 years old. The intervention included daily school physical education (PE) (200 min/week), whereas the controls continued with the Swedish standard of 60 min/week. Using a questionnaire, we gathered data about total PA, leisure time PA and sedentary activities (SA). Group comparisons are adjusted for age and gender, and data are provided as means with 95% CIs.

Results: At baseline, we found similar duration of PA and SA between groups. After a mean of 7 years with intervention, the intervention group was more physically active than the controls (+4.5 (2.9 to 6.0) hours/week), whereas SA was similar (+0.6 (-2.5 to 3.9) hours/week). Four years beyond the intervention, the intervention group was still more physically active than the controls (2.7 (0.8 to 4.7) hours/week), and SA was still similar (-3.9 (-9.7 to 1.7) hours/week).

Conclusions: Intervention with daily school PE throughout compulsory school is associated with higher duration of PA not only during the intervention but also 4 years after termination of the programme.

Keywords: children; physical activity; physical education; sedentary activity.

Figure 1

A flow-chart of the study-population