The Physical Activity Leader and Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program Effectiveness

Study aim: Two thirds of children are not meeting recommended levels of physical activity. A solution to physical inactivity is Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programming (CSPAP). Little is known regarding the impact of a school's physical activity leader on CSPAP effectiveness. Therefore, this study explored changes in physical activity accumulated during school hours in CSPAP schools being led by the physical education teacher compared to a stand-alone physical activity leader. Material and methods: Participants were 1325 children from ten elementary schools in the Southwest U.S. participating in a CSPAP. Children wore Yamax DigiWalker pedometers prior to CSPAP implementation and again at the end of the academic year when CSPAP was fully implemented. Five schools had physical education teachers serve as CSPAP leaders and five schools had stand-alone leaders. Results: Results suggest that stand-alone physical activity leader schools yielded significant increases in school-day step counts from baseline to follow-up compared to physical education leader schools (mean change difference = 1901 steps, p < 0.001, d = 0.73). Conclusions: These findings may provide insight to the challenges of being a full time physical education teacher while trying to train and engage other teachers/staff in physical activity promotion. Stand-alone physical activity leaders or a committee approach to CSPAP implementation may be more effective for increasing physical activity in schools.