Roland Naul

‘Healthy children in sound communities’ (HCSC/gkgk)—a Dutch–German community-based network project to counteract obesity and physical inactivity

BACKGROUND In 12 municipalities at the German-Dutch border an integrated approach of a multi-component intervention programme (physical activity, nutrition, public health, improvement of the physical environment) to enhance an active lifestyle has been implemented in 39 primary schools for a 4-year longitudinal intervention and evaluation study. OBJECTIVE A weekly lesson plan, including 3 hours of health enhanced physical education and two additional hours of physical activities offered by sport clubs to balance motor deficits and to reduce overweight and obesity was implemented. Furthermore, another hour of cross-curricular education of health and nutrition education is part of the school curriculum. To achieve 60 to 90 minutes of daily physical activities for 6- to 10-year-old pupils active commuting to school has become a part of school life. METHODS A physical fitness and motor development test is applied each school year including BMI measurements as a part of a socio-ecological concept. Intrapersonal developments of the pupils are measured by different questionnaires focusing on the individual social context of physical activity, nutrition habits and time allocation for electronic media. RESULTS Original values of Motor Ability tests show significant increase in endurance, coordination, velocity and force tasks. Also first changes for BMI distribution are explored in only one year intervention. CONCLUSION First results indicate the possibility to counteract obesity and to increase levels of physical fitness and motor development by a multi-component progamme and a multi-sector approach of intervention. The longitudinal design of the study allows having a look on long-term effects.

Recommendations for Promoting Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents in Germany. A Consensus Statement

Increasing physical activity and reduction of sedentary behaviour play important roles in health promotion and prevention of lifestyle-related diseases in children and adolescents. However, the question of how much physical activity is useful for which target group is still a matter of debate. International guidelines (World Health Organization; European Association for the Study of Obesity), which are mainly based on expert opinions, recommend 60 min of physical activity every day. Age- and sex-specific features and regional differences are not taken into account. Therefore, expert consensus recommendations for promoting physical activity of children and adolescents in Germany were developed with special respect to national data, but also with respect to aspects of specific target groups, e.g., children with a lower socio-economic status (SES) or with migration background. They propose 90 min/day of physical activity, or at least 12,000 steps daily. Additionally, lifestyle factors, especially restriction of media consumption, were integrated. The recommendations provide orientation for parents and caregivers, for institutions such as schools and kindergartens as well as for communities and stakeholders.

The development of the physical fitness construct across childhood

The measurement of physical fitness (PF) is an important factor from many different perspectives. PF is a determinant of healthy child development as it is related to several health outcomes. However, existing taxonomies of the construct and frequently used fitness assessments vary concerning their theoretical assumptions and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, the construct of physical fitness covers a variety of motor domains, such as cardiovascular endurance, strength, coordination, or flexibility (eg, Caspersen et al., 1985). However, most fitness assessments provide a single (composite) score including all items as test outcome. This implicitly relates to a one‐dimensional structure of physical fitness, which has been shown for other motor performance assessments in early childhood (eg, Utesch et al., 2016). This study investigated this one‐dimensional structure for 6‐ to 9‐year‐old children within the item response theory framework (Partial Credit Model). Seven fitness subtests covering a variety of motor dimensions (6‐minute run, pushups, sit‐ups, standing broad jump, 20 m sprint, jumping sideways, and balancing backwards) were conducted to a total of 790 six‐year‐olds, 1371 seven‐year‐olds, 1331 eight‐year‐olds, and 925 nine‐year‐olds (48.2% females). Each item was transformed into five performance categories controlling for sex and age. This study indicates that a one‐dimensional testing of PF is feasible across middle childhood. Furthermore, for 6‐ and 7‐year‐olds, all seven items including balancing backwards can be accumulated to one factor. From the age of about 8 and 9 years balancing backwards seems to become too easy. Altogether, analyses show no diversification of PF across childhood.

Understanding physical (in-) activity, overweight, and obesity in childhood: Effects of congruence between physical self-concept and motor competence

Both the physical self-concept and actual motor competence are important for healthy future physical activity levels and consequently decrease overweight and obesity in childhood. However, children scoring high on motor competence do not necessarily report high levels of physical self-concept and vice versa, resulting in respective (in-) accuracy also referred to as (non-) veridicality. This study examines whether children’s accuracy of physical self-concept is a meaningful predictive factor for their future physical activity. Motor competence, physical self-concept and physical activity were assessed in 3rd grade and one year later in 4th grade. Children’s weight status was categorized based on WHO recommendations. Polynomial regression with Response surface analyses were conducted with a quasi-DIF approach examining moderating weight status effects. Analyses revealed that children with higher motor competence levels and higher self-perceptions show greater physical activity. Importantly, children who perceive their motor competence more accurately (compared to less) show more future physical activity. This effect is strong for underweight and overweight/obese children, but weak for normal weight children. This study indicates that an accurate self-perception of motor competence fosters future physical activity beyond single main effects, respectively. Hence, the promotion of actual motor competence should be linked with the respective development of accurate self-knowledge.

Internationalism in Olympic Education – A European Comparison

There exist different linguistically, culturally and politically associated definitions and semantic meanings of the term “internationalism”. Internationalism in Olympic education has a very different meaning compared to Internationalism of Olympic education. As far as internationalism is concerned as a part of Olympic education or as an element in Olympic education, the nature or the body of knowledge of Olympic education is the topic. Internationalism of Olympic education means the geographical wide-spread diffusion and implementation of Olympic education programmes in different cross-cultural settings of learning and education. The topic of this paper is internationalism in Olympic education which means: to investigate how far a certain approach of internationalism has become a part of Olympic education concepts.

Slaap en overgewicht in Europees onderzoek. Gezonde kinderen in een Gezonde Kindomgeving (GKGK)

Er blijkt een relatie te bestaan tussen de nachtrust van kinderen in het weekend en overgewicht. Dit blijkt uit de eerste resultaten van een longitudinaal onderzoek bij kinderen in de leeftijd van 7 à 8 jaar in 6 Nederlandse (n = 474) en 6 Duitse steden (n = 393) naar de relatie tussen slaap en overgewicht. Met dat de nachtrust in het weekend met 1 uur daalt, stijgt de prevalentie van overgewicht met een factor 1,42 (95%-BI 1,09-1,86; p = 0,010). Door de week is dit verband niet significant, hoewel de relatie in dezelfde richting wijst (p = 0,2). Deze resultaten bevestigen het belang van het stimuleren van voldoende slaap, naast het bevorderen van bewegen en gezonde voeding bij de preventie van overgewicht.

Dansk gymnastiks europæiske dimension

Artiklen skaber et overblik over dels europaeisk pavirkning af dansk gymnastik, dels dansk pavirkning af udviklingen inden for den europaeiske gymnastikundervisning.