Heart-healthy effort in the school day. Implications for schools

Abstract

Introduction. The study analyzed the levels of cardio-healthy physical activity (CHPA) of elementary school children in the school day and the hierarchy of predictive factors. Methodology. A cross-sectional, prospective, correlational, and inferential study. Fifty-eight children (32 boys and 26 girls) (11.88 ± 0.32 years) enrolled in 24 schools provided data of sexual phenotype, weight type, cardiac endurance, aerobic capacity, social and emotional expressiveness, anxiety, sociometric type, sedentary level, type of center, and school day. After registering the subjects' heart rate with Polar® monitors for 5 consecutive school days, the CHPA was analyzed (time spent in an effort of e»50% HR reserve). Subsequently, correlational analysis and decision tree technique were carried out to determine the hierarchical relationship of CHPA predictive factors (á = 0.05). Results and conclusions. Boys would reach more CHPA than girls at recess (pmin/sem = 0.03; p% time/sem = 0.02). Among the former, the popular ones would accumulate more CHPA than the rest (R2= 38.85). Schoolchildren with lower aerobic endurance would accumulate more CHPA in Physical Education than the rest (R2= 8.39). Those who show intermediate rates of emotional expressiveness would achieve more CHPA than the rest in Artistic and other minority school activities, where active and very active introverts would achieve more CHPA than little active and sedentary introverts (R2= 30.09). The ecological model is insufficient to explain the level of CHPA of school children during the school day.