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

Aim: 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\ns). Mean values indicate that all parameters were significantly modified in both groups (6MWT, D = 5.03%, p\0.0001; SBJ, D = 6.71%, p\0.0001; SRT, D = -6.07%, p\0.0001) with respect to baseline data, EG achieving significantly greater improvement in the 6MWT (p\0.5) 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.