The Association between Health-Related Fitness and Physical Activity during Weekdays: Do Fit Students Exercise More after School?

Physically active students are more likely to be fit and learn better in school than sedentary ones. For school-aged children, it is unclear whether physical fitness level is an important determinant for student’s activity afterschool. This study examined the association between health-rel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dehong Yang, Xihe Zhu, Justin A. Haegele, Patrick B. Wilson, Xueping Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
Series:Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4127
Description
Summary:Physically active students are more likely to be fit and learn better in school than sedentary ones. For school-aged children, it is unclear whether physical fitness level is an important determinant for student&#8217;s activity afterschool. This study examined the association between health-related physical fitness test performance and afterschool physical activity during weekdays. Participants (<i>n</i> = 97, 11&#8722;13 years old) completed health-related fitness tests. They wore Actigraph GT3X accelerometers for five consecutive days, recording physical activity participation during after school hours. Descriptive statistics for both afterschool physical activity and health-related fitness were summarized. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the association between variables. Participants spent most of their afterschool hours participating in sedentary behaviors (274.27 &#177; 66.89 min) and light physical activity (73.68 &#177; 51.66 min), and only 11.35 &#177; 16.92 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), accumulating approximately 2058.52 &#177; 1690.56 steps each day afterschool. The regression model explained 22.8% of the variance in afterschool MVPA, and Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) scores were the only statistically significant predictor (<i>&#946;</i> = 0.47, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01). Fit students do tend to exercise more after school. Promoting physical fitness in school is an important factor for students&#8217; afterschool physical activity participation during weekdays.
ISSN:2071-1050