Effects of School-Based Physical Activity Programs on Health-Related Physical Fitness of Korean Adolescents: A Preliminary Study

Eui-Jae Lee, Wi-Young So, Hyun-Su Youn and Jooyoung Kim
Additional contact information
Eui-Jae Lee: Department of Physical Education, Sogang University, Seoul 04107, Korea
Wi-Young So: Sports Medicine Major, College of Humanities and Arts, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju-si 27469, Korea
Hyun-Su Youn: Department of Physical Education, College of Education, WonKwang University, Iksan-si 54538, Korea
Jooyoung Kim: Office of Academic Affairs, Konkuk University, Chungju-si 27478, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-8

Abstract: As adolescents spend the majority of their time focused on exams and assignments, they do not have sufficient time to engage in physical activity; this lack of physical activity is an important public health concern. This study aimed to investigate how school-based physical activity programs affect the health-related physical fitness of adolescents in the Republic of Korea. For this study, a total of 120 high school students participated in a school-based physical activity program that included badminton and table tennis for 15 weeks each (35 min/day, three times a week), with a total of 30 weeks for one academic year. The parameters for health-related physical fitness measured muscle strength (handgrip strength), power (standing long jump), cardiorespiratory fitness (shuttle run test), flexibility (sit and reach), body mass index (BMI), and the total score. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in muscle strength ( p < 0.001), power ( p < 0.001), cardiorespiratory fitness ( p < 0.001), flexibility ( p = 0.005), and the overall health-related physical fitness score ( p = 0.001). However, students’ BMI showed no significant difference before and after participation ( p = 0.825). The results of this study indicated that school-based physical activity programs can have a positive effect on the health-related physical fitness of adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents; body mass index; physical activity; physical fitness; school-based program (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/2976/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/2976/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:2976-:d:516769

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().