Physical activity across the curriculum: year one process evaluation results

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Issue Date
2008Author
Gibson, Cheryl A.
Smith, Bryan K.
DuBose, Katrina D.
Greene, Leon
Bailey, Bruce W.
Williams, Shannon L.
Ryan, Joseph J.
Schmelzle, Kristin H.
Washburn, Richard A.
Sullivan, Debra K.
Mayo, Matthew S.
Donnelly, Joseph E.
Publisher
BioMed Central
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Published Version
http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/5/1/36Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: Physical Activity Across the Curriculum (PAAC) is a 3-year elementary school-based intervention to determine
if increased amounts of moderate intensity physical activity performed in the classroom will diminish gains in body mass index
(BMI). It is a cluster-randomized, controlled trial, involving 4905 children (2505 intervention, 2400 control).
Methods: We collected both qualitative and quantitative process evaluation data from 24 schools (14 intervention and 10
control), which included tracking teacher training issues, challenges and barriers to effective implementation of PAAC lessons,
initial and continual use of program specified activities, and potential competing factors, which might contaminate or lessen
program effects.
Results: Overall teacher attendance at training sessions showed exceptional reach. Teachers incorporated active lessons on
most days, resulting in significantly greater student physical activity levels compared to controls (p < 0.0001). Enjoyment ratings
for classroom-based lessons were also higher for intervention students. Competing factors, which might influence program
results, were not carried out at intervention or control schools or were judged to be minimal.
Conclusion: In the first year of the PAAC intervention, process evaluation results were instrumental in identifying successes
and challenges faced by teachers when trying to modify existing academic lessons to incorporate physical activity.
Description
This is the publisher's version, also found via http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/5/1/36. "© 2013 Donnelly et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited."
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Citation
Gibson, C.A.; Smith, B.K.; DuBose, K.D.; Green, J.L. (2008) Physical activity across the curriculum: year one process evaluation results. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 5.36.
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