Physical education in schools, sport activity and total physical activity in adolescents

Abstract

Less than half of adolescents reach the recommended300 minutes per week of physical activity (PA). Physical educationclasses and sports participation provideopportunities for adolescents to accumulate moretime for PA practice; however, littleis known about the influence of these variables onthe level of total physical activity ofadolescents. The aim of this study was toinvestigate the association between the practiceof physical education (PE) in schools and sportsactivities (SA) with the practice oftotal PA of adolescents. The study wascross-sectional and involved 467 adolescents ofhigh school (15.8 ± 0.9 years-old) from the city ofRio Claro, in the State of São Paulo. Participants completed the Physical ActivityQuestionnaire to Older Children (PAQ-C)and questions related to the practice of PE and SAin schools. We performed a logisticregression with p<0.05 using SPSS. Girls hadlower prevalence of PA than boys, 9.4% and26.8%, respectively. Boys who did not participateof PE classes (OR=0.25, CI95%=0.09-0.66) and SA in schools (OR=0.34, CI95%=0.12-0.95)were less likely to be active in PAthan boys who practiced these activities. Theparticipation in PE classes or engagementin some SA were positively associated with thepractice of total PA in boys.