Combined Physical Education and Nutritional Programs

Essay, Pages 8 (1999 words)

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The article, “Effects of Combined Physical Education and Nutritional Programs on Schoolchildren’s Healthy Habits” by Gallotta, Iazzoni, Emerenziani, Meucci, Migliaccio, Guidetti, and Baldari was well-written and effectively explained the reasons, aim, participants, methods, and results of the study. There were few limitations such as class scheduling interfering with physical activity time, BMI assessment limitations, and student self-report accuracy. This study provided useful information and results that proved a multidimensional physical education and nutritional program can establish healthy habits in school children.

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This article was retrieved from the journal PeerJ. This journal was published by PeerJ. The issue containing this article had over one-hundred articles in it. This article was written using the AMA writing style. In the “guidelines for authors” section of the PeerJ website, PeerJ listed the requirements that authors must comply with regarding their submissions. Authors should not include a cover letter with their submissions. The submissions must be well-written, grammatically correct, and written in English. They provided formatting guidelines for manuscripts and acceptable file types of submissions.

They included standard section and citation guidelines for different submission types.

Summary

The authors of this study investigated the effects of a multidisciplinary physical education program combined with a nutrition program on school children’s physical activity and dietary habits. The participants involved in the study were from ages eight to eleven years old and in grades three through five. The researchers randomly divided the children into two experimental groups and one control group. The children were, also, classified into body fat mass percentage groups.

All three groups participated in a physical education program and a nutritional program. The difference in the groups was the type of physical education program. The first experimental group focused on improving cardiovascular health. The second experimental group focused on developing decision making and problem solving through movement. The control group focused on the school’s traditional physical education curriculum. The intervention lasted five months. The researchers evaluated the students’ weekly physical activity levels, eating habits, amount of sedentary time, and anthropometric data. Measurements were taken before and after the study. The results of the study showed that a combination of a multidimensional physical education and a nutrition program was beneficial in establishing healthy habits in children. After the intervention, students increased their amount of weekly physical activity, decreased their amount of sedentary time, and improved their nutritional habits. This study showed that the intervention was successful in changing children’s unhealthy habits, however, more research is needed to develop the intervention to increase the positive effects seen from the intervention.

Title

The title of this article effectively communicates the content of the study. It is neither too long nor too short. No unnecessary words are used in the title of this article. It follows guidelines for proper article titles as provided in Thomas, Nelson, and Silverman’s book, Research Methods in Physical Activity (2015).

Abstract

The abstract of this article was well-written and provided enough information from the article for the reader to gain a solid overview of the study. The authors stated the purpose of the study and provided background information. Also, the methods used in the study and the participants in the study were described in the abstract. The researchers included the results of the study followed by a discussion of how the results revealed that their experiment was useful in achieving their desired outcome.

Introduction

The authors wrote an informative introduction to their article. They included background information about problems related to their study. This included information about causes of obesity and the levels of obesity in America and Europe. The authors included information from a survey conducted in Italy regarding sedentary behavior and physical inactivity levels in adolescents. They explained that the physical inactivity and unhealthy eating habits of a significant number of children are major causes of obesity. In the introduction, the authors provided reasons for their study to be conducted. They explained that a combined nutritional and physical education program would prove effective in helping children adopt proper dietary and physical activity habits, which will help in lowering obesity rates. The authors discussed in the introduction that other research studies have had disputable results regarding nutrition and physical activity combined programs and their efficacy in reducing adolescent obesity. They described how their study involved a slightly different approach in order to obtain more desirable results. They described the measurements conducted and the length of the study. They provided a brief description of the types of physical education programs. Toward the end of the introduction, the authors stated their hypotheses. The authors cited and discussed findings from other research in their background information. The problem statement appeared in the last paragraph of the introduction. The authors provided a brief and testable statement of the problem. Their problem statement was shaped by past research in hopes of answering questions that were not answered in past research. Gallotta, Iazzoni, Emerenziani, Meucci, Migliaccio, Guidetti, and Baldari (2016) stated that the purpose of their study was to, “evaluate the effectiveness of different PE programs, in combination with a nutritional intervention, on schoolchildren’s healthy habits” (p. 3), where they investigated the effects of normal physical education programs and multi-dimensional physical education programs in combination with a nutritional program to observe the effects of the programs on children in school. Thomas, Nelson, and Silverman (2015) explain that a quality introduction involves clear communication of background information and reasons for the study so the researchers can spark interest in the reader (p. 118-120). The authors complied with these guidelines and wrote a well-written introduction that provided background information, explained the reason for the study, and created interest in the problem.

Methods

The authors explained the methods section of their study, thoroughly. They described the design of the study, the characteristics and criteria for the participants, and the assessment tools. The research design was appropriate for this type of experiment. The researchers randomly assigned students into three groups which participated in three different interventions. There searchers allowed the participants to volunteer for the study, which meant that more motivated participants were involved in the study. The authors described the characteristics of the participants thoroughly. In addition, key variables such as nutritional and educational healthy habits and nutritional and physical education interventions were identified in the methods section of this study. The researchers also created criteria for participant selection that allowed appropriate subjects to volunteer for this study and ensured that their subjects met the criteria. The description of the participants adhered to the principles found in Thomas, Nelson, and Silverman’s book, Research Methods for Physical Activity (2015). In addition, the types of measurements were also described in detail. Multiple measurements were used in this study, including anthropometric measurements, physical activity questionnaires, interviews of parents, and student diet records. Some of the measurement tools provided accurate assessments, while other tools may have been less accurate. The bioelectrical impedance tool is a very accurate tool. The BMI z-score provides accurate measurements for single assessments but was used for multiple assessments in this study. Also, questionnaires and interviews can be useful in gathering information, however, the information gathered may not be very accurate due to altered answers by participants. The researchers did not discuss any pilot work done before testing procedures began.

The authors were detailed in their description of the physical education and healthy nutrition interventions. They provided the length of time the interventions were in effect, the expected outcome, and the means by which the outcome was to be achieved. They described the methods in which the nutritional information was taught to the students; which included talks, Combined physical education and nutritional programs short lectures, sensory workshops, and games. They included information about the certification of the nutrition teacher. In the physical education intervention, the intensity, the duration, the teachers, and the general design were discussed. Each group’s intervention was described thoroughly. The authors provided hypotheses in their introduction. They did not restate their hypotheses in the methods section of the article. In regard to the methods section of the study, Thomas, Nelson, and Silverman (2015) stated that, “The standard rule is that the description should be thorough enough that a competent researcher could reproduce the study” (p. 141), and I believe the methods section of this article achieved this goal.

Results

The results of the study contained data which the researchers used to evaluate the problem of their study. The researchers presented the results proficiently. They also provided appropriate tables and descriptions of the results.

Discussion

The authors discussed the results of each component that was assessed in the study. They provided a detailed explanation of the results collected and how the results related to the problem that was investigated in the study. Gallotta et al. (2016) stated the outcome of the study, which was that it, “…suggested that combined PE and nutritional interventions led to an increase in weekly PA level, a reduction of sedentary time and a qualitative change in the consumption of some specific foods, supporting the efficacy of this type of intervention in primary schools” (p. 3), which meant that the study supported the hypothesis that combined multidisciplinary physical education and nutrition programs could help establish proper physical activity and dietary habits in children. Also, the authors explained the limitations of the study including the activity schedules of the students and some of the measurement tools. They included information about how some of the results from their study correlated to the results of previous studies. They discussed how the results reflected that physical activity and proper nutrition increased after the experimental interventions, but not after the control intervention. In addition, they explained that sedentary behavior decreased in under fat and normal fat children, but not in obese children. They explained that previous studies showed similar results of obese children’s reluctance to lead an active life. The authors expressed the need for additional studies on this problem. The authors provided a discussion of how the information from this study will contribute to the field. They explained that this study can help in finding methods of successfully establishing healthy habits in children in hopes of increasing numbers of healthy children and decreasing numbers of obese children.

The authors provided a section where they discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the study. I agree with the authors that the design of their study was a strength. The authors were thoughtful in creating criteria for their participants and ensured that their participants met the criteria. Allowing the children to volunteer allowed for children who were motivated to participate in the study to be a part of the study. The methods of assessment were appropriate and were conducted effectively. Also, I agree that the participant size and the absence of volunteers dropping out was another strength. The authors described weaknesses including school scheduling interferences and self-report limitations.

The authors conducted quality research without excessive speculation. They provided results that supported the purpose. They explained the information of the study in a thorough manner.

References

The authors cited the sources used in their article correctly. The references are properly formatted and complete.

Overall Impression

This study was conducted and explained in a thorough manner. The researchers selected an important issue and created quality methods and procedures for gathering the data and assessing the results. They were detailed in their description of the participants, methods, and results. The researchers were knowledgeable about the content in their study. They structured the groups well and explained the structure of the groups thoroughly. The high amount of effort put into this study was evident. This study is a significant contribution to knowledge about kinesiology and physical education. This study provided additional and new knowledge to a problem that has been investigated by previous studies. The researchers sought to answer questions that yielded controversial results in past studies. I believe this study was beneficial in evaluating methods of solving the problem of reducing sedentary behaviors and obesity rates of children through increasing physical activity and healthy nutrition.