Assessing the school environmental factors associated with adolescents' physical activity during after school program in San Antonio, Texas

Objective: To determine after school program staff perceptions of the barriers and facilitators in engaging youth to be active in San Antonio public schools as a physical activity initiative of “Communities Putting Prevention to Work” (CPPW), a 15.6 million obesity grant awarded to San Antonio Metropolitan Health District by the CDC.

Methods: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) strategies were employed. District after-school program staff, including those from socioeconomic disadvantaged neighborhoods participated in a survey. Physical activity (PA) related environmental assessments included: audit features and quality of school PA space, facilities during the after school period, supervised or non-supervised extracurricular PA opportunities after school, and use of school facilities outside school hours. The analysis included cross-tabulation and chi square.

Results: Among the respondents, more than half were after school program site supervisors (52.1%), followed by site staff (39.6%). Gymnasium, grassy field, and blacktop playground (72.1%) were identified as the top three resources available in after school programs. In terms of barriers, 70.5% respondents reported not having enough equipment (e.g., balls) so each child can have one, and 83.3% reported not having track or walking/running trails available. For joint-use programs, basketball courts, gym, and playground were the most often mentioned facilities and/or fields open to the public after school hours. Other detailed attributes of school PA facilities were integrated into an interactive web-based GIS to assess the school inventories in relation to study outcomes.

Conclusions: Findings demonstrated that CBPR is useful for identifying intervention strategies and feasibility in schools.