Moderate to vigorous physical activity in physical education classes recess among school children and adolescents in a Mexico-US Border City

Aim: To compare the moderate to vigorous physical activity of physical education classes taught by teachers and their students during recess. Method: In order to determine the physical activity intensity the system for observing fitness instruction time (SOFIT) was used, A descriptive cross-sectional comparative methodological design was used, 87 physical education classes (n=75 elementary school, n=12 junior high school) were evaluated selecting randomly 4 students from each class (2 men and 2 women), the same procedure was followed to evaluate the same 4 students during the 30 minutes of recess. Results: The equality of variance was calculated using the Student t test for independent samples resulting a P-value=.000 in elementary school students and P-value=.001 in junior high school students both alpha <= less than 0.05, with a moderate to vigorous physical activity index in physical education classes taught by teachers of 43.5 +/- 18.2 and performed by students during recess of 50.5 +/- 10.4, in junior high school the moderate to vigorous physical activity index in physical education classes taught by teachers was 37.2 +/- 11.2 and 54.4 +/- 3.8 performed by students during recess. Conclusion: The intensity of physical activity during recess was higher without teacher instruction in relation to physical education classes evaluated, by other hand, the physical education classes did not reach the international standards of have a moderate to vigorous intensity above 50% of class time, due, is important a feedback for the teachers in strategies for involving the students in moderate to vigorous physical activity.