Interdependência entre a participação em aulas de Educação Física e os níveis de atividade física de jovens brasileiros.

Abstract

Physical education, besides its traditional value for education, has a fundamental impact for the prevention, maintenance, and promotion of health. Consequently, it contributes for a better quality of life, increases life expectancy, and helps prevent physical inactivity, one of the main causes of death in the world (LEE et al., 2012). The aim of the study is to verify the interdependence between the participation in Physical Education classes and the levels of physical activity in Brazilian youngsters using data obtained by PeNSE (Brazilian Survey on Scholars Health), which includes enrolled students from public and private schools that are taking the 9th year of Elementary School. PeNSE is a scholar epidemiologic study designed by the health surveillance secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS) in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Regarding physical activity, a structured and self-administered questionnaire was applied to 60,973 students in 2009 and 109,104 in 2012, between March and June, 2009, and April and September, 2012. Our approach includes cross-sectional and ecological analyses (FLORINDO & HALLAL, 2011; THOMAS et al., 2012). The outcome variable is the level of physical activity (scholars with <300 min per week of activity were considered inactive), and the main independent variable is the participation in Physical Education classes. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the demographic variables, whereas Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the interdependence between outcome and exposure. Approximately 40% of the students had two Physical Education classes per week. In 2009, percentages were higher than in 2012 on both the bottom (Northeastern region, 37.7%) and top values (Southern region, 49.8%). In 2012, the Northeastern region was the one with lowest percentage of scholars that reach 300+ min of physical activity per week (29.5%), while the Southern region was again the one with the highest percentage (37.3%). In the analyzed group, 14-year-old scholars are predominant, as well as girls and public schools students. A negative correlation was found between not participating in Physical Education classes and the percentage of students that reach 300+ min of physical activity per week (rho -0.84 and p<0.001, in 2009; rho -0.81 and p<0.001, in 2012). Schools that provide Physical Education classes have the highest rates of physical activity (300+ min per week). Law changes for including three Physical Education classes per week are recommended.