Increasing physical activity behaviors through a comprehensive school change effort

There has been an increased call for schools to address public health needs related to physical inactivity and weight gain. The negative health effects of inactivity are even more severe for Indigenous peoples. The purpose of the current project was to implement a one year theory-based curricular change initiative in an Indigenous North American community aimed at integrating physical activity (PA) and healthy behavior knowledge. Participants were 320 Pima Indian children from ten schools in a single Indigenous American community, including 38 classroom and 7 physical education teachers; assigned as intervention (27 classes) or comparison (11 classes) participants. ANOVA results indicated both groups became significantly more active over time. The intervention groups’ behaviour was less stable (α = .71) over time versus the comparison group (α = .86) suggesting positive behaviour changes. Change takes time; however, these initial findings shows progress in increasing physical activity behaviours at school in an understudied and disadvantaged population.