Author(s)

Ling Qian¹, Lok-Wa Yuen², Yonghua Feng², Ian M. Newman², Duane F. Shell², Weijing Du¹

¹China Center for Health Education, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China.
²Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

China’s National Physical Fitness and Health Surveillance (NPFHS) survey revealed high levels of sedentary behavior among primary school-aged children. Sedentary behavior is linked to both short-term and long-term physical and mental health conditions. A comprehensive school health education program was designed and its effectiveness to raise physical activity levels in Grade 4 primary school children was evaluated. Twelve schools (6 of program, 6 of control) from six cities in two economically different provinces were selected. Students at program schools received physical activity instruction both in and out of school. Control schools carried on with their usual level of physical activity for students, as required by national educational standards. Program effectiveness was assessed by comparing students’ physical activity behaviors at pre- and post-program, and by comparing students’ physical activity scores at program schools with students’ scores at control schools. The pre-program survey of students’ behaviors was done at the end of Grade 3, and the post-program survey was done at the end of Grade 4. Multi-level modeling was used to evaluate program effectiveness to allow for missing data. Results from 4472 students showed at pre-program there was no difference in control and program schools’ student physical activity scores. At post-program students in program schools did significantly more physical activity compared to students in control schools. Students in program schools were more physically active after the comprehensive school health education program. A school-based comprehensive health education program would effectively increase children’s physical activity level in China. There is a potential to reduce sedentary behavior among children by implementing school programs that are environmental in nature; that is, activities involve not only the students, but also the school administration, teachers, parents, and community members.

Obesity, Child, Sedentary, Environmental, Health Promotion, Multilevel Modeling

Qian, L. , Yuen, L. , Feng, Y. , M. Newman, I. , F. Shell, D. and Du, W. (2018) Effect of a Comprehensive Health Education Program to Increase Physical Activity among Primary School Students in China. Advances in Physical Education, 8, 196-204. doi: 10.4236/ape.2018.82018.