Association Between the Frequency of Physical Education Classes and the Prevalence of Overweight/Obesity in Adolescents
Collin Rice
Objective: To determine an association between the frequency of physical education classes and the prevalence of overweight/obesity in adolescents in the United States.
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that used the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) provided by the Center for Disease Control. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis methods were used to calculate the odds ratios for frequency of physical education classes and other risk factors for overweight and obesity. Adjusted odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated by using a multivariate logistic regression model. SPSS and Epinfo 6.04 were the statistical software’s used for the statistical analysis.
Results: The results indicate that 25.7% of adolescents in the United States are either overweight or obese. The results also show that 49.9% of adolescents do not attend PE class at all during the week. No statistically significant relationship was found between attending physical education classes and not attending physical education classes and overweight/obesity in adolescents adjusting for confounders (OR=0.95 CI=0.81-1.11). There was also no statistically significant relationship between the frequency of physical education classes and the overweight/obesity of adolescents, adjusting for confounders (OR=1.01 CI=0.95-1.08).
Conclusion: The data shows that there is no direct relationship between the frequency of students attending physical education classes and the prevalence of overweight/obesity, although the study shows that there is a direct correlation between physical activity and the prevalence of overweight/obesity, which is found in the literature. Program evaluations need to be done for schools to assure that students have opportunities to receive an adequate amount of physical activity.
