Journal of Healthy Eating and Active Living

Physical education teachers’ perceived effectiveness in association with student attendance, teacher adaptability, external educational supports, and teaching format during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ann Kuhn — 2022-12-23

Spring 2020 pandemic-control policies included an abrupt shift to remote teaching, which may have affected physical education (PE) teachers’ perceived effectiveness. This study examines PE teachers’ perceived effectiveness in association with student attendance, teacher adaptability, PE supports, teaching format (in-person, remote synchronous, remote asynchronous, etc.), and teacher- and school-level demographics at three time points (before the pandemic, Spring 2020, and the 2020-2021 school year). An electronic survey was developed by an expert panel and distributed to U.S. public school PE teachers (convenience sampling via school health-related organizations). For analyses, teacher perceived effectiveness was dichotomized (very/extremely effective= “1”; not at all/slightly/moderately effective= “0”). Logistic regression models assessed associations between perceived effectiveness and independent variables (student attendance, teacher adaptability, PE supports, teaching format, and demographic variables) at each time point. Respondents (n=134; M age=46) were mostly female (62%), general PE teachers (82%, versus adapted), had a graduate degree (66%), had 0-10 years of teaching experience (37%), and were from 26 states. Perception of being very/extremely effective was highest before the pandemic (93%), lowest in Spring 2020 (12%), and recovered somewhat in 2020-2021 (45%). During the 2020-2021 school year, teachers had greater odds of perceiving they were more effective if they reported having higher student attendance (OR 1.06 [CI:1.02-1.09], p>.001) and higher adaptability (OR 1.22 [CI: 1.09-1.37], p>.001), adjusting for gender, education level, years of experience, school type, and title I status. Professional development opportunities are needed for remote teaching of PE to enhance teachers’ adaptability and perceived effectiveness during potential future school closures.

Understanding the Impact of Move Your Way® Campaign Exposure on Key Physical Activity Outcomes

Kate Olscamp — 2022-12-23

Introduction: The Move Your Way^®campaign was developed to encourage physical activity contemplators to get active. A pilot test of campaign implementation was conducted and evaluated in eight communities between March and October 2020. Methods: A web-based, cross-sectional survey of adults collected pilot campaign outcome data after campaign implementation. Differences in outcomes between exposed and unexposed groups across the communities were compared. Results: A total of n = 5,140 responded to the survey. Across eight communities, those who reported campaign exposure had 7.2 (95% CI, 6.1-8.6) greater odds of being aware of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (Guidelines) compared to unexposed respondents. Additionally, they had greater odds of identifying the correct aerobic and muscle-strengthening dosages and had 1.4 (95% CI, 1.1-1.6) greater odds of reporting meeting both the aerobic and muscle-strengthening Guidelines. Discussion: In this pilot evaluation, reported exposure to Move Your Way is associated with higher odds of being aware of the Guidelines, knowing recommended dosages, likelihood of becoming more active in the future, higher self-efficacy, making a recent physical activity behavior change, and higher physical activity levels. The Move Your Way campaign can be used in communities to promote physical activity.

Beyond walking: An assessment and description of streets as potential physical activity places in low-income communities

M. Renée Umstattd Meyer — 2022-12-23

Low-income communities often have fewer quality community-level physical activity places (PAPs) or resources (e.g., parks, playgrounds). When present, barriers like traffic, distance, and crime often prevent access. Creative solutions and better understanding of current and potential realistic PAPs are necessary for children and families to be active. Streets are rarely considered potential PAPs despite their ubiquity and accessibility. This article describes street segments as potential PAPs in low-income Mexican-heritage colonias communities along the Texas-Mexico border. Promotora-researchers conducted modified PAP assessments to describe the availability and quality of physical activity features, amenities, and incivilities of all street segments (n=867) in two low-income colonias regions along the Texas-Mexico border. Streets in these communities did contain features and amenities associated with physical activity promotion. On average, street segments had 6.10 (SD=7.20) physical activity-promoting features, 26.60 (SD=27.30) physical activity-promoting amenities, and both were assessed as good-to-fair quality. Future physical activity programming should consider incorporating streets as potential PAPs to enhance physical activity and active play. Further, evaluating streets as PAPs in this way may provide insight into locations for temporary place-based programs such as Play Streets. Future research should also examine residents’ perceptions of their streets as PAPs for safe physical activity and active play, not just as places to walk, and which PAP characteristics matter for safe physical activity and active play to occur on streets.

The impact of COVID-19 on sedentary behavior among Chinese university students：a retrospectively matched cohort study

Hongjun Yu — 2022-12-23

Purpose: This study was to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on sedentary behavior for Chinese university students during the pandemic period, as well as explore how sedentary behavior changed as a function of gender.

Methods: We conducted an online questionnaire (the Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire) on 1487 (947 males & 513 females; Age 19.72± 1.32yr., BMI = 21.12 ± 4.50) students from one university in China during the pandemic period and students retrospectively recalled pre-pandemic physical activity levels (March 29- April 15, 2020). Sedentary behavior was measured using the short version of the Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ). Sedentary behavior of social isolation in a typical week during the COVID-19 pandemic period and before the COVID-19 pandemic were measured based on SBQ. The data were analyzed using a paired-samples t-test. Chi-square tests were to compare categorical variables.

Results: Before the COVID-19, on weekdays, survey participants averaged engaged in 11.41 (SD =3.93) hours of SB, 10.97 (SD = 3.85) hours of SB in males, 12.25 (SD =3.94) hours of SB in females; on weekends, survey participants averaged engaged in 13.18 (SD =4.06) hours of SB, 12.74 (SD = 3.96) hours of SB in males, 14.04 (SD =4.11) hours of SB in females. During the COVID-19, on weekdays, survey participants averaged engaged in 13.34 (SD =3.78) hours of SB, 12.90 (SD = 3.67) hours of SB in males, 14.19 (SD =3.83) hours of SB in females; on weekends, survey participants averaged engaged in 14.48 (SD =3.93) hours of SB, 14.10 (SD = 3.81) hours of SB in males, 15.22 (SD =4.04) hours of SB in females. Overall, on weekdays, COVID-19 on average appeared to increase SB by 1.93 (16.91%↑, 95% CI = 1.74, 2.12) hours, an increase in daily total SB by 1.92 (17.50%↑, 95% CI = 1.92, 2.15) hours for males, and an increase 1.94 (15.84%↑, 95% CI = 1.62, 2.27) hours in females. On weekends, COVID-19 on average appeared to increase SB by 1.30 (9.86%↑, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.48) hours, an increase in daily total SB by 1.36 (10.68%↑, 95% CI = 1.13, 1.58) hours for males, and an increase 1.18 (8.40%↑, 95% CI = 0.87, 1.50) hours in females.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 led to an increase in sedentary behavior of Chinese university students. The total sedentary time of female students per week was higher than that of male students. Public policy action might be urgently needed to decrease the sedentary behavior of Chinese university students.