Preface
P
hysical activity is central to health, and its importance clearly extends
beyond its role in achieving energy balance to prevent and treat
obesity and overweight. Adequate daily physical activity improves cardio-
vascular health, metabolic health, brain and mental health, and musculo-
skeletal health—benefits that recent research shows are gained across the life
span. Important emerging research has further focused on the association
between physical activity in youth and academic achievement.
Clinical and public health guidelines indicate that youth need a mini-
mum of 60 minutes per day of vigorous- or moderate-intensity physical
activity to optimize health and development. Because many youth spend
a substantial amount of time in school, this report focuses specifically on
the role schools can play in increasing physical activity among youth and
providing opportunities to meet these guidelines. This role falls squarely
within schools’ long-standing tradition of providing access to health-related
services such as health screenings, nutrition programs, and immunizations.
The assumption that school-based physical education can provide
enough physical activity for children and adolescents has recently been
challenged on a variety of fronts. First, the 60 minutes per day of physical
activity that is health enhancing is nearly impossible to achieve through
physical education, even with the highest-quality physical education cur-
riculum. Second, quality physical education must include time for teaching
activities and lessons that may not be physically active. Third, political
and economic pressures on education systems to improve standardized test
scores have had the unintended consequence of reducing or eliminating
physical education curricula and thus students’ opportunities for physical
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
x
Preface
activity. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to highlight the central
need not only to provide quality physical education for all youth but also
to implement other evidence-informed methods schools can use to help all
children and adolescents attain a minimum of 60 minutes of vigorous- or
moderate-intensity physical activity per day to improve health, develop-
ment, and academic performance. Many different constituents—including
federal, state, district, and school administrators; teachers; parents; and
all those interested in the health, development, and academic achievement
of youth—must be reached with the message that such a whole-of-school
approach to physical activity is needed.
Many people contributed to the successful completion of this project.
First, the committee thanks Tina Kauh and the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation for supporting the study and the development of this report.
The committee also wishes to thank participants in a public workshop held
in September 2012 to gather expert opinion on this topic from leaders in
the field: Michael Beets, Ph.D.; Becky Ciminillo; Don Disney, M.S., M.A.;
Joseph Donnelly, Ed.D.; Erin Donoghue, M.Ed.; David Dzewaltowski,
Ph.D.; Gillian Hotz, Ph.D.; Dolly Lambdin, Ed.D.; Melissa Maitin-
Shepard, M.P.P.; Noreen McDonald, Ph.D.; Thomas McKenzie, Ph.D.; Lisa
Perry, M.Ed; Shellie Pfohl, M.S.; Abby Rose, M.Ed., M.A.; and Jennifer
A. Weber, M.P.H., R.D. In addition, in December 2012, Katrina L. Butner,
Ph.D., spoke with the committee during an open session, and we would like
to thank her for her time.
I am most grateful to the volunteer expert committee members who so
graciously gave time from their busy schedules to contribute to the comple-
tion of this task over such a short time period. The efforts of each member
were extraordinary. Further, I appreciate the extensive consultative guidance
from Terry T-K Huang, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.P.H., of the University of Nebraska
Medical Center. Dr. Huang’s understanding of systems thinking helped
shape the committee’s approach and this report in an innovative way.
This work could not have been completed without the outstanding
support and guidance of the dedicated Institute of Medicine (IOM) staff,
including Heather Del Valle Cook, study director; Lynn Parker, scholar;
Emily Ann Miller, program officer; Sarah Ziegenhorn, research assistant;
Allison Berger, senior program assistant; Sarah Sliwa, Christine Mirzayan
Science and Technology Policy Fellow; and Linda Meyers, director of the
IOM Food and Nutrition Board. Finally, the report greatly benefited from
the copyediting skills of Rona Briere. I am grateful to each of these indi-
viduals for their patience and focus during the study process.
Harold W. Kohl III, Chair
Committee on Physical Activity and Physical
Education in the School Environment
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
xi
SUMMARY 1
1 INTRODUCTION
15
Purpose of This Study, 16
Background and Study Context, 18
Study Approach, 21
Overview of the Report, 31
References, 32
2 STATUS AND TRENDS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
BEHAVIORS AND RELATED SCHOOL POLICIES
35
Physical Activity, 38
Status of Physical Activity Behaviors Among Youth, 38
Trends in Physical Activity Behaviors Among Youth, 63
State and Local Policies on School-Based Physical Activity, 69
Summary, 87
References, 89
3 PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION:
RELATIONSHIP TO GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, AND
HEALTH 97
Physical Health, 101
Psychosocial Health, 130
Mental Health, 132
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