Zan Gao, Ph.D., Kinesiology assistant professor and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory, recently published a first-authored paper titled “Investigating elementary school children’s daily physical activity and sedentary behaviors during weekdays” in Journal of Sports Sciences.

The purpose of the study was to quantify the contributions of physical education, exergaming (active video games that also are a type of exercise), recess, lunch break and after-school time segments to children’s daily physical activity and sedentary behaviors. The researchers found that physical education was more effective in generating moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than other segments over the school day. The after-school segment holds potential as an avenue for promoting children’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, as this long period could be better utilized to organize structured physical activity.

The citation is: Gao, Z., Chen, S., Huang, C., Stodden, D., & Xiang, P. (2016). Investigating elementary school children’s daily physical activity and sedentary behaviors during weekdays. Journal of Sports Sciences. Published online: 07 Mar 2016 (impact factor: 2.25)