Evaluation of school-based interventions of active breaks in primary schools: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Masini, Alice; Marini, Sofia; Gori, Davide; Leoni, Erica; Rochira, Andrea; Dallolio, Laura

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2019.10.008

Cited by 113 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

127

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The researchers provided a detailed manual with all the exercises proposed to the experimental group. The AB protocol was developed on the basis of previous literature investigated through a systematic review [24], with an innovative aspect represented by the introduction of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), consisting of 40" of vigorous PA alternated with 20" of recovery, performed at least once a day. The experimental class performed the AB protocol twice a day, usually the first break in the morning and the second in the afternoon, for all the weekdays, during an intervention period of 14 weeks.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lasting effects were obtained with the most intense (10 min thrice a day for 12 weeks) or longer (10−15 min once a day for 9 months) interventions. The majority of studies included in the review were performed in the USA and Australia, and to a lesser extent, in Europe [24]. Only one study about active breaks was carried out in Italy [25], which experimented an AB intervention, consisting of two daily PA breaks three times a week in a primary school, and showed the feasibility of the programme and its potential on the reduction of children's inactivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Active Breaks: A Pilot and Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Physical Activity Levels in a School Based Intervention in an Italian Primary School

Masini

Marini

Leoni

et al. 2020

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The school gives access to children, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic class and can be identified as the key environment in which to promote children’s physical activity (PA). The guidelines of the European Union recommend accumulating at least 10-min bouts of PA to reach the daily 60 min. Active breaks (ABs) led by teachers inside the classroom represent a good strategy to promote PA. The aim of this pilot and feasibility study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness in terms of PA level of an AB programme in children aged 8–9 years attending primary school. Methods: A pre-post quasi-experimental pilot and feasibility study was performed in two primary school classes, one of which was assigned to a 14-week AB intervention (AB group) and the other to the control group (CG). At baseline and at follow-up, children were monitored for sedentary and motor activity during an entire week using ActiGraph Accelerometer (ActiLife6 wGT3X-BT). The satisfaction of children and teachers was assessed by self-administered questionnaires. Results: In the pre-post comparison, AB group (n = 16) showed a reduction in the minutes spent in weekly sedentary activity (−168.7 min, p > 0.05), an increase in the number of step counts (+14,026.9, p < 0.05) and in time spent in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA): weekly MVPA: +64.4 min, daily MVPA: +8.05 min, percentage of MVPA: +0.70%. On the contrary, CG showed a worsening in all variables. ANCOVA analysis, after adjusting for baseline values, showed significant differences between the AB group and CG for time spent in MVPA, percentage of MVPA and step counts. The satisfaction of children and teachers was good. Teachers were able to adapt the AB protocol to the needs of the school curriculum, thus confirming the feasibility of the AB programme. Conclusions: This pilot and feasibility study showed the feasibility and effectiveness of the AB protocol and represented the basis for a future controlled trial.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active Breaks: A Pilot and Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Physical Activity Levels in a School Based Intervention in an Italian Primary School

Masini

Marini

Leoni

et al. 2020

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, research utilising acute (i.e., single sessions) bouts of cognitive demanding physical activity has found mixed results, with some studies depicting improvements in children's executive functions [35,36], whereas other studies reported worsening effects in children's attention scores in the short-term [37,38]. In addition, research on active breaks mainly focusing on chronic school-based interventions found improvements on children's on-task behaviour but conflicting results on students' academic achievement and cognitive function [39,40]. In particular, some studies found positive [36,[41][42][43], as well as adverse or negative effects [35,44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of An Acute Physical Activity Break on Test Anxiety and Math Test Performance

Mavilidi

Ouwehand

Riley

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

(1) Background: Test anxiety has been found to negatively affect students’ mental health and academic performance. A primary explanation for this is that anxiety-related thoughts occupy working memory resources during testing that cannot be used for test-related processes (such as information retrieval and problem-solving). The present intervention study investigated whether physical activity could decrease anxiety levels and improve maths test performance in sixth-grade children. (2) Methods: Sixty-eight children of 11–12 years from two primary schools in New South Wales, Australia were categorised as low or high anxious from their scores on a trait-anxiety questionnaire. After this assessment, they were randomly assigned to the activity break condition, in which they had to do several physical activities of moderate intensity (e.g., star jumps) for 10 min, or the control condition, in which they played a vocabulary game for 10 min. The outcome measures were children’s anxiety levels at the beginning, during, and at the end of the test, invested mental effort, perceived task difficulty and maths test performance. (3) Results: Results showed that regardless of the condition, low anxious students performed better on the maths test than high anxious children. No differences were found for any of the variables between the activity break condition and the control condition. (4) Conclusions: Although test anxiety was not reduced as expected, this study showed that short physical activity breaks can be used before examinations without impeding academic performance.

show abstract

“…Considering multisensory perception is impaired in several developmental disorders, such as dyslexia (Hahn et al 2014), and autism (Baum et al 2015) and with few viable interventions avenues currently available, exercise represents a potential intervention to train multisensory perception. Furthermore, as both open-and closed-skill exercises are already widely used in schools (Masini et al 2019) and popular amongst children, the use of exercise as an interventional strategy for perceptual training is a potentially attractive and cost-effective option.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory perception, verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor working memory modulation after a single open- or closed-skill exercise session in children

O’Brien

Ottoboni

Tessari

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Physical activity presents clear benefits for children's cognition; this study examined the effect of a single exercise session of open-or closed-skill exercise, as opposed to a noexercise activity on multisensory perception, i.e. the ability to appropriately merge inputs from different sensory modalities, and on working memory (verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor working memory) in 51 preadolescent children (aged 6-8). Using a semi-randomised pre-post design, participants completed a range of cognitive tasks immediately before and after an exercise session or a classroom sedentary activity. Participants were randomised, within each school, to one of the three groups (open-skill, n=16; closed-skill, n=16; classroom activity, n=19). Exercise, but not usual classroom activity, improved children's multisensory perception, with no difference between exercise types. Results also revealed that a single open-skill session produced verbal working memory (digit span) benefits; a closed-skill exercise session benefitted motor working memory. While the relatively small number of participants should be acknowledged as a limitation, these findings contribute to emerging evidence for selective cognitive benefits of exercise, and show, for the first time in children, that multisensory processing sensitivity is improved by exercise.

show abstract

Evaluation of school-based interventions of active breaks in primary schools: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cited by 113 publications

References 43 publications

Active Breaks: A Pilot and Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Physical Activity Levels in a School Based Intervention in an Italian Primary School

Active Breaks: A Pilot and Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Physical Activity Levels in a School Based Intervention in an Italian Primary School

Effects of An Acute Physical Activity Break on Test Anxiety and Math Test Performance

Multisensory perception, verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor working memory modulation after a single open- or closed-skill exercise session in children

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About