Current evidence suggests that school-based physical activity interventions may be effective in the development of healthy lifestyle behaviours among children and adolescents that will then translate into reduced risk for many chronic diseases and cancers in adulthood. The evidence also suggests that the best primary strategy for improving the long-term health of children and adolescents through exercise may be creating lifestyle patterns of regular physical activity that carry over to the adult years.
It is estimated that as many at 1.9 million deaths worldwide are attributable to physical inactivity, and that inactivity is a key risk factor in the development of most chronic diseases and cancers.
This is alarming particularly because it is known that physical activity patterns track from childhood into adulthood; that children are increasingly exhibiting risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as obesity, elevated blood lipids, and hypertension, conditions which are known to track into adulthood; and that atherosclerotic fatty streaks in the coronary arteries, which are indicative of coronary heart disease, have been found postmortem in children.
This review included 26 studies that evaluated the impact of combinations of school-based interventions focused on increasing physical activity among children and adolescents. Participants were between the ages of 6 to18 living in Australia, South America, Europe and North America.
There is good evidence that school-based physical activity interventions are effective in increasing duration of physical activity, reducing blood cholesterol and time spent watching television and increasing VO2 max. VO2 max, known as maximal oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity, reflects the physical fitness level of an individual and generally increases as fitness levels improve. These interventions are not effective in increasing the percentage of children and adolescents who are physically active during leisure time, or in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, and pulse rate. At a minimum, a combination of printed educational materials and changes to the school curriculum that promote physical activity result in positive effects for four of the nine outcomes.