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Impact of NFL PLAY 60 Programming on Elementary School Children's Body Mass Index and Aerobic Capacity: The NFL PLAY 60 FitnessGram Partnership Project
Author(s) -
SaintMaurice Pedro F.,
Bai Yang,
Welk Gregory J.,
Bandelli Lorraine N.,
AllumsFeatherston Kelly,
Candelaria Norma
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12561
Subject(s) - body mass index , general partnership , aerobic exercise , physical fitness , aerobic capacity , demography , psychology , index (typography) , gerontology , physical therapy , medicine , business , finance , computer science , sociology , world wide web
BACKGROUND We examined the impact of the Fuel Up to Play 60 ( FUTP60 ) program on children's body mass index ( BMI ) and aerobic capacity ( AC ).METHODS Participation in the FUTP60 and both BMI and AC profiles were collected through the NFL PLAY 60 FitnessGram Partnership Project involving over 100 schools from 22 US states. We specifically examined the distributions of BMI and AC among participating versus nonparticipating schools in the 2012‐2013 school year. Hierarchical linear models tested the impact of participation and availability of additional funding for program implementation on the proportions of youth meeting FitnessGram health‐related fitness standards (ie, Needs Improvement—Health Risk [ NIHR ] and Healthy Fitness Zone [ HFZ ] categories).RESULTS After 1 year implementing the program, participating schools had lower proportions of boys (−4.1 ± 2.0%, p = .04) and girls (−4.5 ± 2.0%, p = .03) in the NIHR for BMI , and lower proportion of girls (−9.7 ± 4.0%, p = .02) in the NIHR for AC . There were no differences in the distributions for the HFZ and the availability of additional funding did not alter the relationships (p > .05).CONCLUSIONS This study provides preliminary evidence that participation in the FUTP60 is associated with improved profiles of health‐related fitness.