Effectiveness of a physical education program on children’s physical fitness

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of 20 professionally led physical education (PE) lessons on primary school children’s physical fitness.Methods: Two hundred and ninety-two classes, for a total of 25 schools in the Lombardy region, including children aged 6–11 years, were recruited. Participants were assigned to quasi experimental (EG) or quasi-control (CG) groups. The intervention period lasted 6 months for both groups. Experimental interventions were designed by a specialist PE teacher who conducted one of the 2 weekly 60-min lessons with a psychopedagogical approach; the other was conducted by the generalist teacher. The CG school curriculum was administered by the generalist teacher. All children (EG: N = 4371; CG: N = 796) completed a health-related fitness test battery (weight and height to calculate BMI z-score, standing broad jump_SBJ, 6-min walking test_6MWT, and 4 9 10 m shuttle run test_SRT) at baseline and follow-up. Results: After 6 months EG slightly decreased BMI z-score (D = -0.01, p = ns), while CG somewhat increased BMI z-score (D = 0.04, p s). Mean values indicate that all parameters were significantly modified in both groups (6MWT, D = 5.03%, p.0001; SBJ, D = 6.71%, p.0001; SRT, D = -6.07%, p.0001) with respect to baseline data, EG achieving significantly greater improvement in the 6MWT (p.5) when compared to CG counterparts. Conclusions: The present study is the first one at including such a large sample of 8-year children, as compared to previous Italianstudies1,2,3. PE lessons played a determinant role in improving children’s motor skills and fitness. Moreover, specialist PE teachers were more successful than generalist teachers in achieving greater improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness. References 1. Dallolio L. J Phys Act Health. 2016 Oct;13(10):1025–1034. 2. Gallotta MC. J Sports Sci. 2017 Aug;35(15):1547–1555. 3. Lucertini F. Eur J Sport Sci. 2013;13(5):582–90