title: The effects of the Pathways Obesity Prevention Program on physical activity in American Indian children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inadequate opportunities for physical activity at school and overall low levels of activity contribute to the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in American-Indian children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A school-based physical activity intervention was implemented which emphasized increasing the frequency and quality of physical education (PE) classes and activity breaks. Changes in physical activity were assessed using the TriTrac-R3D accelerometer in a subsample of 580 of the students (34%) randomly selected from the Pathways study cohort. Baseline measures were completed with children in second grade. Follow-up measurements were obtained in the spring of the fifth grade.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intervention schools were more active (+6.3 to +27.2%) than control schools at three of the four sites, although the overall difference between intervention and control schools (approximately 10%) was not significant (P>0.05). Boys were more active than girls by 17 to 21% (P < or =.01) at both baseline and follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the trend for greater physical activity at three of four study sites, and an overall difference of approximately 10% between intervention and control schools, high variability in accelerometer AVM and the opportunity to measure physical activity on only 1 day resulted in a the failure to detect the difference as significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. going@u.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Going
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Harnack
authors.forename: Corleone
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hastings
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Corbin
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools; D014481:United States