Impact of an Elementary School-Based Intervention on Physical Activity Time and Aerobic Capacity, Georgia, 2013-2014

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the impact of a 1-year elementary school physical activity intervention on changes in teacher-reported school-based physical activity time and (2) assess the relationship between these changes and changes in student aerobic capacity. Methods: HealthMPowers, a nonprofit organization, provided a multicomponent physical activity intervention to 3479 students in 39 schools in Georgia during 2013-2014. HealthMPowers administered a survey to faculty members before (August 2013) and after (May 2014) the intervention to measure student physical activity times. The organization collected pre- and post-intervention Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) laps (a measure of aerobic capacity that awards 1 lap for each completed 20-meter lap) for 2342 fourth-grade students. We performed linear regression to determine the relationship between school-level changes in teacher-reported school-based physical activity time and student aerobic capacity. Results: The weekly estimated teacher-reported time in physical activity increased by 39 minutes from pre- to post-intervention: 21 minutes for recess, 17 minutes for classroom, and 1 minute for physical education. The mean number of student PACER laps increased by 3 laps from pre- to post-intervention, and 1515 of 2342 (65%) students increased the number of PACER laps completed. We observed a positive association between school-level changes in school-based physical activity time and school-level changes in PACER laps (r = 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.29-0.46). Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for more prospective research into multicomponent physical activity interventions. Rigorous testing, including randomized controlled trials of large-scale implementations, is needed to examine how these school-based interventions might be used to improve the physical activity and fitness of larger populations of children.