Effects of a physical activity programme in the school setting on physical fitness in preschool children

Abstract

An aerobic games programme in the school setting improved physical fitness in preschool children.

Effects of Exercise Intervention on Health-Related Physical Fitness and Blood Pressure in Preschool Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Most studies included apparently healthy preschoolers, but two studies included overweight and/or obese children [28,32]. Participants enrolled in exercise cohorts were predominantly from the Germany (n = 4) [31,32,36,38], with studies from USA (n = 3) [20,21,35], Australia (n = 2) [29,37], Israel (n = 2) [27,34], Switzerland (n = 2) [24,33], China (n = 1) [28], Scotland (n = 1) [25], Spain (n = 2) [22,30], and Thailand (n = 1) [23]. All studies included boys and girls.…”

“…The outcome measures were: body mass index, body mass index z-score, waist circumference, skinfolds thickness, body fat, obesity prevalence, blood pressure (systolic and diastolic blood pressure), and cardiorespiratory fitness assessed with the shuttle-run test or a 10x20-meter test [22,24,28,30], lower-body muscular strength assessed with the standing long-jump test, and speed-agility assessed with the 10-meter…”

“…x 4 shuttle run test [22,28], an obstacle course test [24,26], a 20-meter test [30] or a 6-m test [38]. Further information for all individual RCTs are summarized in Tables 1.…”

Intervention Effects of a Kindergarten-Based Health Promotion Programme on Motor Abilities in Early Childhood

“…Since aerobic endurance is considered a positive predictor of well-developed health-related fitness (50), which again is positively associated with various health aspects such as cardiovascular health and weight status (51), endurance performance is looked at in most interventions assessing children's motor abilities. Like Latorre-Román et al (25) who were able to show similar effects using a shorter (10 weeks) but much more intense programme including 3 weekly exercise lessons á 30 min focussing on the promotion of physical fitness through aerobic exercise games. Correspondingly, the health promotion programme "Ballabeina" was able to demonstrate positive intervention effects on endurance performance in kindergartens with a high proportion of children with migration background (26).…”

“…The positive impact of physical activity on children's motor abilities, health and health behaviors is subject of ongoing health research. Findings of various evaluation studies of physical activity promotion measures suggest that targeted promotion of physical activity can positively support the development of motor abilities even at kindergarten age (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Therefore, it is recommended to integrate physical activity promotion into children's everyday lives from an early age on in order to promote a physically active lifestyle and encourage more movement experiences so motor abilities can be developed (4,(28)(29)(30)(31).…”