142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Online Program

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

311899
Which factors predict physical activity policy implementation in elementary school classrooms?

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 9:30 AM - 9:50 AM

Nour Schoueri-Mychasiw, PhD , Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ken Allison, PhD , Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Bessie Ng, MPH , Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Karen Vu-Nguyen, MPH , Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Erin Hobin, PhD , Health Promotion, Chronic Disease, and Injury Prevention, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Steve Manske, EdD , University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
John Dwyer, PhD , University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
Heather Manson, MD, FRCPC, MHSc , Health Promotion, Chronic Disease, and Injury Prevention, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Background: In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy requiring school boards to ensure that all Ontario elementary students engage in at least 20 minutes of daily sustained moderate to vigorous physical activity during instructional time. It is currently believed that DPA may not be consistently implemented in Ontario elementary schools and classrooms; however, there have been no provincially focused evaluations of the status of the DPA policy in Ontario. Our main objective is to identify the factors predicting policy implementation in elementaty school classrooms.

Methods: Grade 3, 5, and 7 teachers from a representative and randomly selected sample of over 500 elementary schools across Ontario will be invited in April 2014 to participate in an online survey assessing DPA implementation and potential associated classroom-level factors. Mutivariate logistic regression will be used to address our main objective.

Results: Results will indicate the current status of DPA implementation in elementary school classrooms across Ontario, as reported by teachers, and factors associated with implementation.

Conclusions: Results will inform recommendations to the Ontario Ministry of Education as to the current status of the DPA policy and potentially help to inform strategies for improving the policy and/or the implementation of the policy. Additionally, results may inform future studies intended to assess the status of school health policies in other jurisdictions. This evaluation is seen as a means of addressing the need to monitor government policies and to establish a process for contributing to continued intervention quality.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify the factors predicting physical activity implementation in elementary school classrooms.

Keyword(s): Physical Activity, School-Based Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am currently the Research Coordinator for the study in which the abstract will be presented at the APHA conference. This study presents findings from the evaluation of a school-based physical activity policy. I have worked on a number of projects related to the development of supportive environments for physical activity as a strategy, and have experience in evaluating complex programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4072.0: Physical education and physical activity in school