Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 136, July 2016, Pages 75-79
Public Health

Original Research
Mapping and evaluation of physical activity interventions for school-aged children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2016.02.025Get rights and content

Highlights

  • In contrast to the extensive literature base, few formal physical activity (PA) interventions were present in Southampton schools.

  • Interviewees attributed limited PA provision to a lack of time, money, and priority devoted towards PA within schools.

  • Our data highlight a considerable disparity between sport and PA provision.

  • Key findings from interviews with Portsmouth and Bristol councils suggest commonality with Southampton.

Abstract

Objectives

A high degree of de-regulation, organisational fragmentation and funding cuts throughout UK schools in recent years has obscured the definitive structure and effectiveness of physical activity (PA) provision offered to children. This pilot study aimed to map the current structure and context of PA provision offered to school children in Southampton, and its alignment with existing empirical evidence about the likely effectiveness of such interventions.

Study design

Utilising a qualitative approach, the study focused upon school-based PA provision, since this setting was conjectured to show greater diversity when compared to settings outside of school, lending itself to further interventions than non-school PA provision.

Methods

Interventions offered across nine schools (three junior, two primary, four secondary) were investigated and mapped through semi-structured interviews. Findings were benchmarked against other cities similar to Southampton in indices of multiple deprivation status via interviews with city council workers.

Results

Interviews highlighted only three formal PA specific interventions currently operating, and a hand full of informal interventions. Limited PA provision was attributed to a lack of time, money, and priority devoted towards PA within schools. Considerable disparity exists between the high prevalence of sport-oriented provision compared with the low prevalence of PA specific provision. Interviews with Portsmouth and Bristol city councils suggest that such findings may not be unique to Southampton.

Conclusions

In contrast to the extensive literature base detailing numerous PA interventions in school-aged children, our data suggest that a very small amount of such knowledge appears to translate into PA provision offered in Southampton schools. Our data highlight a significant discrepancy between sport and PA provision across schools. It is possible that the inability to successfully differentiate between sport and PA may present a further obstacle to the successful uptake of PA in the future. An extension of the PA mapping carried out, both countywide and nationally, provides a possible avenue for future research to confirm or contrast these initial insights.

Introduction

Worrying data shows that around 28% of children aged 2–15 years are now classified as either overweight or obese in England.1 Aside from genetic factors,2 environmental causes appear central to the explanation of the obesity pandemic.3, 4 Indeed, 80% of children aged 13–15 years fail to meet public health guidelines of 60 min of physical activity (PA) per day according to data obtained from 105 countries.5 Major efforts have been made to increase the PA of children nationally, however the capacity of current provision as an effective means to combat childhood obesity remains under question, warranting the need for extensive evaluation work.6 While it is clear that children should be active across all aspects of daily life, school-based PA interventions provide a common focal point for PA based research and policy.6, 7, 8, 9, 10 The justification for such includes: i) children spend a considerable amount of their day in school, thus school-based interventions are expected to reach lots children quickly; ii) school settings harbour powerful social networks, improving the circulation of key trends and messages; iii) schools are required to implement PE as part of the curriculum; and iv) interventions align well a healthy schools ethos, consequently once adopted into a school, interventions tend to be maintained and institutionalised for extended periods of time.6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Thus, in order to evaluate effective PA provision offered to children, it is clear that schools provide a likely environment in which PA provision may be easily found.

Briefly, it is important to first recap what constitutes PA and also contexts that influence participation. Physical activity can be defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle that requires energy expenditure.11 Physical activity encompasses sport as a subcategory, where sport is further classified by planned, structured, repetitive and competitive elements.11 It is apparent that participation in PA is not consistent across all contexts. Evidence highlights various key correlates of PA, – i.e. sex, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, parental support and access to facilities etc, – emphasising the need to tailor interventions to specific populations and environments.12

To date, systematic reviews and meta-analyses derived from almost three decades of school-based PA research provide weak and equivocal evidence for the positive impact of interventions to increase PA in children.6, 7, 8, 9, 10 This is despite the potential for even small effect sizes in PA to positively impact on the health of children. Several concerns are consistently presented across such reviews: a) research has struggled to highlight the contextually sensitive attributes that define successful schools-based interventions, along with their specific beneficiaries;9 b) poor compatibility of rigid scientific methodology and evaluation techniques to address a societally complex issue;13, 14 and c) an ongoing search for a ‘one size fits all’ or ‘silver bullet’ solution.14, 15 Brown and colleagues argue that these concerns must be first addressed in order to better justify the wisdom of assigning scarce government finance to future PA provision.7 Furthermore, while an extensive number of reviews in this area implies that an abundance of PA initiatives currently operate in UK schools, there is little evidence with regards to the definitive structure, organisation and impact of current PA interventions. This may have resulted from repeated organisational restructuring of national PA initiatives by governments in recent years, creating considerable mismatch and fragmentation between literature and applied practice.

A clear rationale is therefore set for a comprehensive and contextually sensitive evaluation approach in order to inform policy makers of what to commission, where and for whom. In order to achieve this, the focus of such an approach should be two-fold. Firstly, to systematically map physical activity provision currently available to children across schools, and secondly to critically assess effective and ineffective practice currently offered in line with research literature.9 Thus, to address the initial point the current paper presents a pilot study that aimed to systematically map the existence of PA interventions currently available within a sub-sample of Southampton schools, along with any potential barriers to their implementation. This pilot work would provide a better understanding of the current PA landscape, better informing the construction and methodology of future extensive monitoring and evaluation work.

Section snippets

Sample

Following full ethical approval by the Southampton Solent University Ethics Board, invitation to participate within the study was advertised to all Southampton junior, primary and secondary schools via direct email, the head teacher's e-bulletin and annual conference (via Southampton City Council). Thirteen of fifty-six potential schools responded (23%). Furthermore, applied health practitioners in the Southampton area required prioritisation of schools hosting the greatest number of students

PA provision available in Southampton schools

The research team were able to identify only three formal PA specific interventions currently operating across the nine high risk schools, and a hand full of informal interventions, i.e. pedometer challenges, guest speakers, playground equipment (formality defined by activities undertaken either frequently/infrequently and/or in a organised/unorganised manner). Formal interventions were: a) ‘Real PE’, a countywide program, aiming to develop and deliver a PA and fundamental movement skills

Discussion

This study aimed to systematically map the structure of PA interventions currently available within a sub-sample of Southampton schools, along with any potential barriers to their implementation. In stark contrast to the extensive literature base detailing numerous PA interventions in school-aged children, our data suggest that a very small amount of such knowledge appears to translate into PA provision offered in ‘at risk’ Southampton schools. The research team were able to identify very few

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Julia Tucker-Blackford (Southampton Solent University) and Pawan Lall (Southampton City Council) for providing suggestions to enhance the study design.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval to undertake this work was granted by the ethics board of the School of Sport, Health and Social Sciences at Southampton Solent University. Informed consent was obtained from all participating individuals prior to data collection.

Funding

The authors declare that no funding was received for this research.

Competing interests

The

References (18)

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