BACKGROUND:It has been well evidenced that physical activity (PA) has a positive eff ect on human health. It is very likely that a physically active child will grow up to be a physically active adult. Growing older, there is evidence of decreasing PA in children and youth. In the period of adolescence, girls tend to be less physically active than boys and therefore they are understood to be a risk group in relation to PA.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to characterize school related weekly PA in adolescent girls and to identify the infl uence of participation in physical education lessons (PE) on the structure of weekly PA.
METHODS:The study was carried out using the ActiGraph monitor and record sheets in a period of fi ve school days and two weekend days.
RESULTS:The results have shown that girls participating in two or more PE lessons show higher overall PA performed at school and also spend more time performing intensive PA at school than girls participating only in one or no PE lessons during the week. At school, the girls spent on average 10 minutes performing moderate PA (3.1-6 MET) and 0.6 minutes intensive PA (> 6 MET). The girls spent most of the time at school in being physically inactive, on average 125 minutes. When we compare these results with health recommendations (seven times a week 60 minutes of moderate PA and 3 times a week 20 minutes of intensive PA), we can argue that PA in adolescent girls really needs to be examined in research. Moreover, the results show that school and PA performed there (physical education lessons) still plays its irreplaceable role in the education system regarding the total level of PA and healthy lifestyle in adolescent girls.CONCLUSIONS: The increase of total PA in adolescent girls can be secured by the increase in school related PA (more PE lessons, introducing at least one physically active recess for 30 minutes during a school day, enhancing active transport to and from school) and by the increase of girlsʼ participation in organized PA outside of school and PA at weekends.
BACKGROUND: Knowledge about physically active and healthy lifestyle is one of key factors infl uencing relationship to physical activity (PA) and to lifetime prevalence of healthy lifestyle in adolescents.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to identify diff erences in girls' and boys' knowledge about healthy lifestyle and the strength of the association between the stated weekly physical activity and basic knowledge on healthy lifestyle.
METHODS:The research involved 14 selected schools in the Katowice region, and 275 girls (15.8 ± 0.9 years) and 220 boys (15.8 ± 0.8 years) participated in the study. The level of knowledge about healthy lifestyle was assessed using the "Comprehensive test on health and physical activity" and the level of weekly physical activity was assessed using the IPAQ -long version, with repeated measurement after six weeks. The associations between knowledge, sex and meeting PA recommendations (at least 3 × 20 minutes of vigorous and 5 × 30 min. of moderate weekly PA) were analyzed.RESULTS: Girls show better knowledge related to physically active and healthy lifestyle than boys (U = 5.04; p = 0.000; d = 0.493), which was confi rmed in a repeated measurement (U = 5.54; p = 0.000; d = 0.505). Statistically and practically signifi cant diff erences between boys and girls were found in favour of girls in the areas of nutrition, education and also overall. Between knowledge and meeting PA recommendations, no signifi cant associations were found either in boys or girls. The boys declared more weekly PA (in the fi rst measurement 11,386 METs and in the second measurement 11,393 METs on average) than girls (in the fi rst measurement 8,891 METs and in the second measurement 9,992 METs on average).CONCLUSIONS: Basic knowledge on healthy lifestyle is not satisfactory with the regard to the curricular requirements (especially in physical education and biology). Deeper knowledge acquisition about healthy lifestyle requires adapting integral interdisciplinary approach and eff ective connection between knowledge acquisition about physical activity, diet, and other health and preventive measures and girls' and boys' lifestyle.
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