The increasing prevalence of risk factors associated with physical inactivity lead to an economic burden on society. The article uses the example of the prevention measure "fit for pisa" to investigate to what extent a full economic evaluation can provide a basis for decision-makers. The intervention integrated the daily physical education at 5 primary schools in Göttingen for the entire school term. The study is intended to provide information on short- and long-term potential savings. A process analysis identified the prevention performance from a societal perspective. Resource consumption was recorded in (partly) standardisedform and evaluated and also revealed the need for investment in sports halls with capacity to expand the programme to all primary schools in Göttingen. In the routine the implementation costs of half-day schools are 619 € per student year; for all-day schools 236 € per student year. The consideration of the short-term outcomes shows that TV viewing has decreased and physical activity has been strongly encouraged. The active life style promotion has shown an improvement on BMI in the medium-term. On the basis of a decision analytical model, a cost-benefit analysis of the program over the life course will be undertaken.
Aim: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (2008) and the World Health Organization (2008), regular physical activity is essential to the healthy development of children and contributes to the reduction of chronic diseases throughout their life span. However, coordinated comprehensive national and international programs to promote physical activity and sports participation are lacking. According to the German Sports Federation (2006), physical education (PE) classes at German schools are increasingly being canceled or taught outside the school. "fit for pisa" is a German intervention developed in response to the demand for scientific evaluation of interventions like daily physical education. Its goal is to provide quality management-secured, structured and standardized PE instruction by qualified instructors. Subjects and methods: The "fit for pisa" intervention has been implemented at five primary schools in Göttingen, Germany, since 2003. This daily physical education intervention is based on quality standards. At the five primary schools participating in "fit for pisa," students receive a supplementary 3 class hours of PE/week in addition to the mandatory 2 class hours/week for the entire school term. In other words, the children now receive one 45-min session of PE each school day. Daily physical education is now a part of their mandatory school curriculum. The curriculum content and teaching methods have been continuously developed and optimized based on the state guidelines for Lower Saxony. Results: Teacher training is held at the participating schools once a month to promote standardized implementation and quality management of the intervention program. Additional monthly meetings are held so that the teachers can discuss any problems, deviations or other issues occurring in the classes. Checklists are provided for the teachers and external trainers to document the content and objectives of each lesson. Supervisors evaluate the checklists at regular intervals. Using these instruments, the results of the 4-year intervention program were evaluated at the five participating primary schools. Conclusions: This study provides important data for recommendations to implement additional physical education in primary schools, for the corresponding quality assurance instruments and for the optimization of physical education guidelines for primary schools
The cooperation between the schools and the sports club proved to be an applicable model to implement daily physical education. The combination of teachers and external trainers can contribute to a higher lesson quality. Considering the perceived potentials of daily physical education by all surveyed groups, a comprehensive implementation of systematic daily physical activity promotion in the primary school setting should be tapped more strongly in future.
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