Given that there are no harmful effects and that there is some evidence of positive effects on lifestyle behaviours and physical health status measures, ongoing physical activity promotion in schools is recommended at this time.

The evidence suggests the ongoing implementation of school-based physical activity interventions at this time, given the positive effects on behavior and one physical health status measure. However, given these studies are at a minimum of moderate risk of bias, and the magnitude of effect is generally small, these results should be interpreted cautiously. Additional research on the long-term impact of these interventions is needed.

BackgroundHealth-evidence.ca is an online registry of systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions. Extensive searching of bibliographic databases is required to keep the registry up to date. However, search filters have been developed to assist in searching the extensive amount of published literature indexed. Search filters can be designed to find literature related to a certain subject (i.e. content-specific filter) or particular study designs (i.e. methodological filter). The objective of this paper is to describe the development and validation of the health-evidence.ca Systematic Review search filter and to compare its performance to other available systematic review filters.MethodsThis analysis of search filters was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. The performance of thirty-one search filters in total was assessed. A validation data set of 219 articles indexed between January 2004 and December 2005 was used to evaluate performance on sensitivity, specificity, precision and the number needed to read for each filter.ResultsNineteen of 31 search filters were effective in retrieving a high level of relevant articles (sensitivity scores greater than 85%). The majority achieved a high degree of sensitivity at the expense of precision and yielded large result sets. The main advantage of the health-evidence.ca Systematic Review search filter in comparison to the other filters was that it maintained the same level of sensitivity while reducing the number of articles that needed to be screened.ConclusionsThe health-evidence.ca Systematic Review search filter is a useful tool for identifying published systematic reviews, with further screening to identify those evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions. The filter that narrows the focus saves considerable time and resources during updates of this online resource, without sacrificing sensitivity.

BackgroundThe World Health Organization estimates that 1.9 million deaths worldwide are attributable to physical inactivity. Chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity include cancer, diabetes and coronary heart disease.ObjectivesThe purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the evidence of the effectiveness of school‐based interventions in promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents.Search strategyThe search strategy included searching several databases. In addition, reference lists of included articles and background papers were reviewed for potentially relevant studies, as well as references from relevant Cochrane reviews. Primary authors of included studies were contacted as needed for additional information.Selection criteriaTo be included, the intervention had to be relevant to public health practice, implemented, facilitated, or promoted by staff in local public health units, implemented in a school setting and aimed at increasing physical activity, report on outcomes for children and adolescents (aged 6 to 18 years), and use a prospective design with a control group.Data collection and analysisStandardized tools were used by two independent reviewers to rate each study's methodological quality and for data extraction. Where discrepancies existed discussion occurred until consensus was reached. The results were summarized narratively due to wide variations in the populations,  interventions evaluated and outcomes measured.Main results13,841 titles were identified and screened and 482 articles were retrieved. Multiple publications on the same project were combined and counted as one project, resulting in 395 distinct project accounts (studies). Of the 395 studies 104 were deemed relevant and of those, four were assessed as having strong methodological quality, 22 were of moderate quality and 78 were considered weak. In total 26 studies were included in the review. There is good evidence that school‐based physical activity interventions have a positive impact on four of the nine outcome measures. Specifically positive effects were observed for  duration of physical activity, television viewing,  VO2 max, and blood cholesterol. Generally school‐based  interventions had no  effect on leisure time physical activity rates,  systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, and pulse rate. At a minimum, a combination of printed educational materials and changes to the school curriculum that promote physical activity result in positive effects.Authors' conclusionsGiven that there are no harmful effects and that there is some evidence of positive effects on lifestyle behaviours and physical health status measures, ongoing physical activity promotion in schools is recommended at this time.Plain Language SummarySchool‐based interventions for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescentsCurrent evidence suggests that school‐based physical activity interventions may be effective in the development of healthy lifestyle behaviours among children and adolescents that will then translate into reduced risk for many chronic diseases and cancers in adulthood. The evidence also suggests that the best primary strategy for improving the long‐term health of children and adolescents through exercise may be creating lifestyle patterns of regular physical activity that carry over to the adult years.It is estimated that as many at 1.9 million deaths worldwide are attributable to physical inactivity, and that inactivity is a key risk factor in the development of most chronic diseases and cancers.This is alarming particularly because it is known that physical activity patterns track from childhood into adulthood; that children are increasingly exhibiting risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as obesity, elevated blood lipids, and hypertension, conditions which are known to track into adulthood; and that atherosclerotic fatty streaks in the coronary arteries, which are indicative of coronary heart disease, have been found postmortem in children.This review included 26 studies that evaluated the impact of combinations of school‐based interventions focused on increasing physical activity among children and adolescents. Participants were between the ages of 6 to18 living in Australia, South America, Europe and North America.There is good evidence that school‐based physical activity interventions are effective in increasing duration of physical activity, reducing blood cholesterol and time spent watching television and increasing VO2 max. VO2 max, known as maximal oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity, reflects the physical fitness level of an individual and generally increases as fitness levels improve. These interventions are not effective in increasing the percentage of children and adolescents who are physically active during leisure time, or in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, and pulse rate. At a minimum, a combination of printed educational materials and changes to the school curriculum that promote physical activity result in positive effects for four of the nine outcomes.

BackgroundThe ultimate goal of knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) activities is to facilitate incorporation of research knowledge into program and policy development decision making. Evidence-informed decision making involves translation of the best available evidence from a systematically collected, appraised, and analyzed body of knowledge. Knowledge management (KM) is emerging as a key factor contributing to the realization of evidence-informed public health decision making. The goal of health-evidence.ca is to promote evidence-informed public health decision making through facilitation of decision maker access to, retrieval, and use of the best available synthesized research evidence evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions.MethodsThe systematic reviews that populate health evidence.ca are identified through an extensive search (1985-present) of 7 electronic databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, BIOSIS, and SportDiscus; handsearching of over 20 journals; and reference list searches of all relevant reviews. Reviews are assessed for relevance and quality by two independent reviewers. Commonly-used public health terms are used to assign key words to each review, and project staff members compose short summaries highlighting results and implications for policy and practice.ResultsAs of June 2010, there are 1913 reviews in the health-evidence.ca registry in 21 public health and health promotion topic areas. Of these, 78% have been assessed as being of strong or moderate methodological quality. Health-evidence.ca receives approximately 35,000 visits per year, 20,596 of which are unique visitors, representing approximately 100 visits per day. Just under half of all visitors return to the site, with the average user spending six minutes and visiting seven pages per visit. Public health nurses, program managers, health promotion workers, researchers, and program coordinators are among the largest groups of registered users, followed by librarians, dieticians, medical officers of health, and nutritionists. The majority of users (67%) access the website from direct traffic (e.g., have the health-evidence.ca webpage bookmarked, or type it directly into their browser).ConclusionsConsistent use of health-evidence.ca and particularly the searching for reviews that correspond with current public health priorities illustrates that health-evidence.ca may be playing an important role in achieving evidence-informed public health decision making.