Physical Education is important

1
Physical Education is important

• Kathryn H. Schmitz, PhD, MPH, FACSM
• Assistant Professor
• Division of Epidemiology
• University of Minnesota

2
Physical education IS important

• Physical activity is vital to
• Learning
• Quality of life
• Health
• Well-being

3
Mack Schmitz, rising Kindergartener at Pratt
School, South High School class of 2016
4
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1985
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
5
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1986
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
6
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1987
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
7
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1988
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
8
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1989
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
9
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1990
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
10
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1991
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
11
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1992
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
12
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1993
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
13
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1994
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
14
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1995
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
15
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1996
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
16
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1997
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
17
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1998
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
18
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1999
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
19
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2000
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
20
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2001
Source Mokdad A H, et al. J Am Med Assoc
199928216, 200128610.
21
Hypokinetic disease epidemic

• In addition to contributing to body weight gain,
  lack of physical activity may also be linked to
  the increased incidence/prevalence of
• Type 2 diabetes
• Depressive and anxiety disorders
• Hormonally related cancers

22
Obesity epidemic in children and adolescents
23
Weight and physical activity patterns track over
time

• 42-62 of obese school children will become obese
  adults
• Physical activity levels peak just before
  adolescence and decline through out adulthood
• Therefore, physically inactive kids are very
  likely to be sedentary adults

24
Current National Guidelines

• Healthy people 2010
• Increase to at least 50 the proportion of
  children and adolescents in 1st through 12th
  grade who participate in daily school physical
  education
• Increase to at least 50 the proportion of school
  physical education class time that students spend
  being physically active

25
But what about the 3 Rs?

• Guide to Community Prevention Services
• although there is a perception that the time
  spent in PE may harm academic performance, both
  an examination of the literature included in this
  review and the results of a systematic search of
  other studies on the effects of PE on academic
  performance found no evidence of this harm

Kahn et al. AJPM 2002
26
Cross sectional evidence

• Multiple studies show that academic success is
  associated with physical activity or fitness
• California Department of Education recently
  reported
• Children with better fitness scores also
  performed better academically

California Department of Education News Release
02-37 Shephard PES, 1997
27
Limitations of XS evidence

• Chicken and egg issue
• Which comes first, more activity? Or better
  grades?
• Those who have more resources in general will be
  more academically successful and more physically
  active
• Genetics plays a role

28
Longitudinal studies

• Vanves, France, 1950
• School week lengthened from 32 to 41.5 hours
• Academic instruction time cut by 26
• 2 siestas, vitamin supplements, and physical
  activities added
• 15 hours weekly of physical activities such as
  gymnastics, swimming, training, sports, and
  outdoor activities

29
Vanves, France Outcomes

• failing the certificate of study was found to
  be comparable in treatment vs. control schools
• Students in treatment school appeared more calm
  and attentive
• Fewer discipline problems
• Average days sickness was fewer

30
SHAPE study Adelaide, Australia

• 519 10 year old children
• 14 week program
• 7 schools each assigned to one of these
  conditions
• Fitness
• 75 min. PE per day
• goal of high heart rate
• Skill
• 75 min. PE per day
• Goal of skill building
• Control
• 30 min. PE 3 times weekly
• More general goals

31
SHAPE study short term outcomes

• Despite reducing academic time by 210 min (14)
  per week
• No differences noted in gains in
• Arithmetic performance
• Reading skills
• Trend toward gain in arithmetic performance
• Large gain in classroom behavior scores

32
SHAPE study long term outcomes

• 2 years later, intervention schools had
  significantly better
• Arithmetic scores
• Reading scores
• Classroom behavior scores

33
Quebec study

• 546 primary school children
• Urban and rural school
• Experimental students had 1 additional hour of PE
  per day with a PE specialist, for a total of 1
  hour, 40 minutes daily
• Control students had 40 minutes daily PE
• Started in 1st grade, continued through 6th grade

34
Quebec study outcomes
Note a score of 1 is better than 2 on this
combined indicator of academic acheivement
35
Alternative explanations

• Teacher attitudes
• Get classroom teachers on your side more PE time
  may leave them more prep time!
• Student attitudes
• It is impossible to know if music, art, or basket
  weaving would have had the same effect as PE
• Was it just the break from boredom or actually an
  effect of physical activity?

36
How might physical activity alter learning?

• Cerebral blood flow is increased during aerobic
  activity
• Ability to attend to academic tasks is improved
  with physical activity
• Exercise modulates hormones that are associated
  with mental ability, particularly serotonin
• Enhanced use of nutrients
• Increased self-esteem

37
Piagets hypothesis

• Psychomotor development may be linked to
  cognitive development
• Skills of spatial organization for active play ?
• Understanding mathematical relationships
• Learning language
• Motor learning may lead to better inter-neuronal
  connections

38
How might physical activity alter classroom
behavior?

• The increase in brain serotonin levels resultant
  to exercise may produce a calming effect
• Might this reduce disruptive classroom behavior?

39
NASPE opinion survey

• 76 of parents think more school PE could help
  control or prevent childhood obesity
• 95 think PE should be a part of school
  curriculum for all students grade K-12
• 54 believe PE is as important or more important
  than math, science, or English

www.aapherd.org/naspe
40
Current data What happens in local PE classes?

• 18 schools participated
• Districts
• Minneapolis (3)
• Roseville (2)
• Farmington (3)
• Mounds View (2)
• Monticello (2)
• Becker (1)
• Buffalo (3)
• Forest Lake (2)

41
PE Enjoyment

• 4th and 5th grade students
• Valid reliable survey (Dishman et al.)

42
Good news!

• On a scale of 1-5 (5 highest) children in this
  study rated their overall enjoyment of PE as
• 4.13 for all 18 schools
• 4.29 for Minneapolis only
• Clearly, the children in this study LIKE PE!

43
Time to advocate

• Would your principal or PTO be interested in
  hearing the information in this talk?
• Schmitz_at_epi.umn.edu

44
Physical education IS important

• Physical activity is vital to
• Learning
• Quality of life
• Health
• Well-being

45
Thank you for your time

• Questions?