The effect of active brain-breaks during a typical school day on the in-school physical activity patterns of Grade 1 children in the Western Cape, South Africa

ABSTRACT

The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of classroom-based physically active brain-breaks on the in-school activity levels of Grade 1 (six- to eight-years-old) learners (N = 48) by comparing baseline results to the intervention PA patterns of the participants. Children wore Actigraphs accelerometers for five consecutive school days, and thereafter they participated in a six-week active brain-breaks (10-minute bouts of PA) intervention. On a typical school day, children spend an average of 106.2 ± 30.9 minutes in sedentary behaviour, 43.7 ± 13.7 minutes in moderate PA and 26.5 ± 13.6 minutes in vigorous PA. No differences were found between boys and girls. During the intervention, the children’s sedentary behaviour decreased (100.1 minutes) and their vigorous PA increased (34 minutes). The results emphasise the importance of participation in daily FMS and PA in order to increase Grade 1s’ in-school PA patterns and decrease sedentary behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• sedentary
• interventions
• moderate-to-vigorous PA
• monitor
• physical activity patterns

Acknowledgements

The author(s) would like to express their gratitude to the Grade ones who participated in the study; without the children this study would not have been possible. The author(s) would also like to thank the statistician for his valuable input.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).