Xinyue “Alice” Fang
[box]Abstract[/box]
Amidst the United States’ obesity epidemic and declining physical activity, physical education is being increasingly championed as a strategy to increase physical activity in youth. In order to determine the factors associated with physical activity participation in high school students, minutes per week of active physical education was compared among groups of varying extracurricular, academic, and personal attributes. Using data from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior study, relationships between active physical education time and gender, grade level, grade (academic), weight, and desire to change weight were determined. Statistical analyses were performed using t-tests. We found that females, 12th grade students, those who classified themselves as “Very Underweight,” those who classified themselves as “Very Overweight,” those who wanted to lose weight, and those who wanted to do nothing about their weight were most at risk for lack of active physical education participation. With this knowledge, policy and intervention can be directed more specifically at these groups.
[box]Introduction[/box]
The necessity of physical activity in 21st century America is undeniable. In adolescent populations alone, 18% are categorized as obese, a figure that has nearly quadrupled since 1976-1980.1 Lack of physical activity, a leading cause of obesity, has ramifications in both personal health2 and the national economy. Regular physical activity, on the other hand, has been shown to increase fitness, build healthy bones and muscle strength, control blood pressure, promote psychological well-being, and lower risk factors for a variety of negative health conditions.2
In 2008, the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that children and adolescents should participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily.3 Currently, this recommendation is far from being met. In the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), it was found that only 18.4 percent of 9th-12th grade students were physically active for at least 60 minutes on all seven days preceding survey administration.4 For adolescent populations, school physical education classes could serve a crucial role in promoting physical activity and a healthy lifestyle.5 In fact, many national organizations, including the Center for Disease Control, Healthy People 2020, the American Heart Association, and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, have championed daily physical education in schools.6,7,8,9 In order for groups at risk of low physical activity to be properly identified for intervention, it is becoming increasingly necessary to understand the correlates of physical education participation and the likelihood of physical activity in the absence of physical education. Research in this area is limited, however. While studies have examined the determinants and demographics of obesity and physical activity,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 studies on physical education focus mainly on temporal trends,17 associations with health and activity,6,15,18,19 and methods of teaching.20
In order to address gaps in the literature, this paper studies (1) demographic, extracurricular, academic, and personal attributes associated with the level of high school physical education participation, and (2) the physical activity patterns of students who do not take physical education.
[box]Methods[/box]
In order to examine the factors associated with differing levels of high school physical education (PE) participation, data on physical education and potential correlates was acquired from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS). First, PE participation prevalence rates were subset by correlate and compared to determine the groups most lacking PE participation. Then, the sample without physical education participation was isolated for analysis to determine which correlate groups were most at risk for lack of daily physical activity.
[box]Minutes of Active PE per Week[/box]
Minutes of active PE time per week was chosen as a measure of physical education. Current national standards recommend that high school students spend 225 minutes per week in physical education, at least 50 percent of which involving moderate to vigorous physical activity.8 In order to calculate minutes of active PE per week, students responses to the questions “In an average week when you are in school, on how many days do you go to physical education (PE) classes?” and “During an average physical education (PE) class, how many minutes do you spend actually exercising or playing sports?” were multiplied.
[box]Graphical and Statistical Analysis[/box]
To compare prevalence within correlate groups, minutes of active PE per week was divided into four categories to allow comparison with the national recommendation: No PE, up to 110 minutes, up to 225 minutes (meeting national recommendation), and 225+ minutes (exceeding national recommendation). Prevalence graphs with 95% confidence intervals were produced.
For students without physical education, similar graphs were drawn with x-axis categories as (1) active for 60 minutes per day in 0 days of the week, (2) active for 60 minutes per day in some days of the week, and (3) active for 60 minutes per day in seven days of the week. The categories were again chosen for ease of comparison with the national recommendation of physical activity 60 minutes per day every day of the week.3
Hypothesis tests were performed using STATA 9.1. Correlate groups were analyzed with t-tests to determine whether differences between groups were significant at the .05 alpha-level.
[box]Results[/box]
Physical education and physical activity
Physical activity is defined by the Youth Risk Behavior Survey as being physically active for a total of at least 60 minutes per day. Students who had more days of physical activity were more likely to report higher activity in PE. Likewise, students with higher amounts of physical education participation tended to engage in more physical activity. Compared to students with 0 minutes per week of active PE, students who participate in 225+ minutes of PE are active for 2.13 more days.
Gender
Females were less likely to take physical education classes, with 50.8% participating in zero minutes of PE per week. Males, on the other hand, spent an average of 25.7 minutes more than females in active PE each week.
Females without PE participation were also less likely than their male counterparts to engage in physical activity in the week. On average, males were physically active for .96 days more days in a week than females.
Academics
45.4% of students with mostly A’s did not spend any time exercising or playing sports in physical education, a percentage 2.2% less than the national average. Students with mostly B’s participated in physical education for 11.5 less minutes per week than students with A’s, and students with C’s participated for 14.6 minutes less.
The differences in number of days physically active between non-PE students in different grades were not statistically significant.
Grade level
PE participation dropped considerably from 9th to 12th grade. 10th graders participated in PE for 24.2 minutes less, 11th graders for 43.5 minutes less, and 12th graders for 55.1 minutes less than their 9th grade peers.The differences in physical activity between students of different grade levels who did not participate in PE, however, are less notable; though there is a general trend of decreasing physical activity participation with increasing grade, the only statistically significant result is between 9th graders and 12th, with 12th graders participating in .18 less days of PE than 9th graders.
Weight
Students with differing descriptions of personal weight statuses also differed significantly in PE participation. Compared to students who were “about the right weight”, those who said they were “very underweight” had 26.9 minutes less of PE time per week, those who said they were “slightly underweight” participated in 5.4 minutes less, those who said they were “slightly overweight” participated in 14.1 minutes less, and those who said they were “very overweight” participated in 16.9 minutes less.
Non-PE students with different weight statuses also differed significantly in physical activity. Compared to students of “normal” weight, students who claimed to be “very underweight” exercise for .87 less days; students who were “slightly overweight” exercised for .44 less days; and students who were “very overweight” exercised for .56 less days.
Desire for Weight Change
Students with differing goals of weight change also exhibited significantly differing minutes of PE participation a week. Specifically, compared to those who wanted to stay the same weight, those who wanted to lose weight participated in 8.9 minutes less of physical education, and those who wanted to gain weight participated in 14.8 minutes more of physical education
Students who did not participate in active PE with different desires for weight change also differed significantly in physical activity participation. Compared to students who wanted to stay the same weight, students who wanted to lose weight were active for .33 days less, students who wanted to gain weight were active for .39 days more, and students who did not want to do anything with their weight were active for .31 days less.
[box]Discussion[/box]
This study investigates, for the first time to the author’s knowledge, the relationship between the above factors and associated physical education participation. Though previous studies have similarly analyzed physical activity and obesity, the understanding of physical education correlates is limited. The results of this study readily allow active intervention, since physical education has been shown to promote physical activity.15,18
From the national sample, it was found that 64.8% of high school students did not meet national physical education participation recommendations; of these students, 73.5% did not participate in any active physical education (PE). These findings are extremely disappointing; despite being identified as an area of national concern since 1990, the 2009 YRBS data shows that improvement is minimal.7,21
Even more concerning results lie in the correlate groups. For females, 50.8% participate in zero minutes of active PE time per week, and 38.9% of non-PE students also engage in no physical activity. Similar groups with high level of both (1) lack of active PE and (2) physical inactivity are 12th grade students, those who classified themselves as “Very Underweight”, those who classified themselves as “Very Overweight”, those who wanted to lose weight, and those who wanted to do nothing with their weight. Physical education classes may be a viable way to allow these groups of students to increase their physical activity participation. Because of the lack of both physical education and other physical activity, for these groups, physical education classes could be the students’ only source of physical activity, magnifying the need for specific intervention.
Alarmingly, attention is not currently directed at many of these groups when it comes to physical education promotion. 12th graders, for example, have often already met physical education requirements. However, 20.7% of all 12th grade students were not physically active for any day of the week. Similarly, 32.2% of all students who classified themselves as “very underweight” did not participate in any physical activity in any day of the week. Although these students were not overweight or obese, their lack of physical activity may lead to health complications later in life, ones that impact both the individual and the public’s medical care.2
Although 10th and 11th graders also showed lack of active physical education, the 10th and 11th graders who did not take PE were, unlike the groups in table 2, not significantly different from their counterparts in other grades. Whereas females who did not take PE were significantly less likely than males who did not take PE to engage in physical activity, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders who did not take PE were not significantly different in their physical activity participation, despite how 9th, 10th, and 11th graders have significantly varying active PE participation results. This suggests that 9th, 10th, and 11th graders are not inherently different in their physical education and physical activity participation; rather, their PE participation is caused independently, in this case, likely by state and school PE requirements.18
It was also found that students with lower grades (B’s and C’s) participate in less active PE than students with higher grades (A’s), a result that complements the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s findings that children who are physically active tend to have better academic performance.16 Furthermore, there is no significant difference in physical activity participation among students with no PE participation. In light of increasing focus on standardized test scores, these results are significant because they show that active physical education does not hinder academic achievement.
Despite the significance of results, a variety of limitations exist with this study. First of all, the nature of the YRBS, as a voluntary school-based survey, may have caused bias in the responses. However, the sampling frame and 3-stage cluster survey design and weighted responses should have accounted for potential undercoverage and overcoverage.22 Lack of indicators for states, districts, and schools was also a limitation of this study, since specific data points would have allowed consideration of state and local policy on physical education standards; in other words, it would be possible to detect whether PE requirements play a significant role in active PE participation.
Future research could examine other factors potentially associated with active physical education participation, such as TV and computer use. Moreover, association between PE participation and correlate variables determined on a national level justifies examination on a local level. States and school districts ought to perform similar research to determine how their results relate to national findings. For results that do not match national findings, investigation should be done on the differences in policy or students that caused the disparity. After identifying the groups most at risk, these groups could be specifically targeted for PE programs at a local level to better match the population at hand.
Alice Fang is a freshman at Stanford from San Diego, California. After noticing that many of her peers were not taking physical education classes in high school, she was inspired to investigate the groups most at-risk for lack of physical activity. Alice is interested in the intersection of science and society and is the founder of the Journal of Youths in Science (JOURNYS; www.journys.org), a science publication that aims to promote peer-to-peer STEM education.
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