HONOLULU, HI – In the US, 1 in 5 (almost 13 million) children and adolescents are overweight or obese. One of the main contributors to obesity is insufficient levels of physical activity (PA). Understanding the impacts of the environment on PA is essential to promotion of children’s health.
A recent five-year study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver College of Architecture and Planning, the Colorado State University Exercise Science Laboratory and the University of Hawaii’s Office of Public Health Studies investigated the effects of schoolyard renovations and a PA recess curriculum alone and in combination on children’s PA. The Intervention for Physical Activity and Youth (IPLAY) was developed in collaboration with the Denver Public School System, and transformed schoolyards into attractive, safe multi-use playgrounds tailored to the local community to increase recess PA.
“Distinctive elements of the intervention schoolyards include community gateways and gathering spaces, public art works, age appropriate play equipment, grass playing fields, colorful structured and unstructured asphalt games, custom shade structures, habitat areas and nature play,” says first author, Claudio Nigg, PhD, a professor of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences.
Twenty-four schools in inner city Denver participated; 6 schools each were assigned to control, curriculum only, schoolyard renovations only, and curriculum plus schoolyard renovations. PA outcomes were assessed pre-program, mid-program, immediate post-program, and one year post-program. Recess periods were observed and participants wore wrist-mounted accelerometers and completed surveys to report their PA.
“No meaningful intervention effects were found among the intervention groups, and this finding is consistent with results from other intervention trials,” reports Nigg. “This suggests that interventions must not only try to increase PA during already established free-time, but also provide additional PA opportunities. Recess by itself does not seem to be long enough (15-20 minutes) to produce change in children’s PA.”
Additional studies are needed to explore other potential avenues to promote PA include making recess longer, integrating recess into the school curricula, and developing recess PA curricula integrating schoolyards.
