Adding more physical education classes for children in grades 1 through 9 led to substantial reductions in body-mass index (BMI, a measure of body weight that takes height into account) over time, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity.
Physical activity is very important for people with diabetes, and it has been shown to help prevent type 2 diabetes. But the role of physical activity in weight loss is a more complicated topic. Some dietary weight-loss strategies have been shown to be effective regardless of how much physical activity people get, and there is limited evidence that not getting enough physical activity is behind the decades-long increase in childhood obesity — but strong evidence that family income and education and food insecurity are linked to obesity in children and adolescents. On the other hand, some research has shown that greater physical activity enhances weight loss when added to lifestyle intervention programs aimed at children and families. Even if you don’t need to lose weight, it’s a good idea to be physically active — but make sure that you ease into greater activity if it’s been a while.
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For the latest study, researchers at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia looked at the impact of a nationwide program in that country in which 216 schools offered additional physical education classes to students between 2011 and 2018. Children who attended these classes were 6 to 14 years old, and the researchers looked at data from 29,152 who took these classes along with 34,473 who didn’t. The two groups of students were matched to resemble the general school-aged population as closely as possible. Students at participating schools were offered the extra classes as an elective option, and the additional classes — two more for grades 1 through 6, and three more for grades 7 through 9 — meant that participating students were attending a physical education class on every school day, as noted in an article on the study at Healio.
Slovenia has a national fitness surveillance system, which means that the researchers could obtain data on height and weight over time for all study participants. The researchers defined obesity as having a BMI in the 95th percentile or higher for their age and sex, and overweight as being in the 85th to 94th BMI percentile. They were interested in whether participating in the extra physical education classes led to any change in BMI over time compared with children who didn’t participate, as well as whether they led to any reversal of obesity.
Lower BMIs linked to increased physical education classes
Compared with children who didn’t take the extra physical education classes, those who did had an increasingly lower BMI over time — a difference that peaked at three years for girls with normal weight or obesity, and at four years for girls with overweight. For boys, the BMI difference leveled out after three years for all body weight categories. For girls with obesity, participating in the extra classes was linked to a greater tendency to no longer have obesity after two years of the classes, while for boys this greater likelihood to no longer have obesity started after three years of the classes. The researchers calculated that to reverse one case of obesity, 17 girls would have to participate in the extra classes for five years, while 12 boys would have to participate in them for five years as well.
The researchers concluded that a school-based physical activity intervention was effective at reducing BMI in general as well as obesity, and that children with obesity benefited the most from the program. Similar studies are needed in other countries, they noted, to find out if this approach may be effective to help reduce childhood obesity.
Want to learn more about exercising with diabetes? Read “Exercise for Beginners,” “Add Movement to Your Life,” “Picking the Right Activity to Meet Your Fitness Goals” and “Seven Ways to Have Fun Exercising.”
