Daily Physical Education Linked to Higher Youth Aerobic Fitness Levels: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Purpose: Physical education (PE) provides opportunities for youth physical activity during the school day, yet daily PE policies remain low. This study investigated whether daily PE was linked to youth aerobic capacity across a 4-year period in Greenville (South Carolina). Methods: Youth in grade levels second to eighth at 2 schools providing daily PE and 2 schools that did not provide daily PE participated in the study (N = 466). The 2 schools used as comparisons provided standard PE outlined by South Carolina, which included one 50-minute session per week (elementary) and daily PE for one semester (middle school). Aerobic fitness was measured using the FITNESSGRAM® Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run test (May 2011–2015). Number of Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run laps completed, age, gender, ethnicity, body composition, and school attended were included in multilevel linear regression analyses. Results: Across the sample, aerobic fitness increased with age. Throughout the study, males demonstrated growth in aerobic fitness compared with a slight decline for females (P < .001). Youth participation in daily PE was linked to increases in aerobic fitness compared with youth who did not receive daily PE (P < .001). Conclusions: Findings suggest that exposure to daily PE may contribute to increased aerobic fitness in youth.