More gym class not the answer to kids' weight woes

NEW YORK, Sep 16 (Reuters) State laws requiring schools to devote more time to gym class have made little difference in American children's activity levels or waistlines, according to a new report.

Since the 1960s, the percentage of US adolescents who are overweight has ballooned from 4.5 percent to 15.5 percent. Many experts have blamed that trend, in part, on the demise of physical education (PE) in US schools.

In response, states have in recent years been passing, or at least introducing, legislation to require students to spend more time in gym class.

The new report, published in the journal Education Next, does not claim PE doesn't matter, but it does argue that merely increasing the number of minutes kids spend in gym class is not the answer to the epidemic of childhood inactivity and obesity.

''We're not saying PE can't work,'' said lead report author John Cawley, an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

However, he told Reuters Health, any health benefits of PE depend not only on quantity but quality -- including the types of activity and the amount of time students are actually exercising vigorously during gym class.

There needs to be a critical examination of the curriculum, said Cawley, noting that even the US Department of Education has criticized PE classes as too often employing an approach of ''roll out the balls and let them play.'' Cawley and his colleagues arrived at their conclusions after analyzing state PE requirements, along with data from a federal survey that regularly monitors the health and behavior of US high school students. The data collected for the years 1999, 2001 and 2003, which included a pooled sample of 44,164 students, were reviewed.

The researchers found that, in general, when PE requirements were raised, students' overall physical activity levels remained largely unchanged. There was also no evidence of PE having an effect on students' risk of being overweight.

Girls did report a small increase in their levels of vigorous exercise -- an extra 8 minutes a week, on average. But much of the gain was offset by a decrease in the amount of time girls spent in moderate activities outside of gym class.

It's possible, Cawley said, that girls who tend to be sedentary cut back on daily physical activity even more when they're required to spend more time in PE.

More effort needs to go toward improving the quality of PE programs, the study authors conclude. So far, there's been little research into what actually gets students more active, let alone what works for weight control.

''The real risk,'' Cawley said, ''is that states will think they've addressed the issue (with time requirements), and then move on to something else.'' REUTERS SSC MIR RAI0923