Objective

Analyze and know the possible effects of school break on the physical condition of schoolchildren and the level of obesity.

Method

Observational, descriptive and longitudinal study. A total of 151 students (69 girls) (6 to 12 years old) were selected from a Primary School center. The physical activity (PA) that they performed during school recess was observed and recorded for 2 months. After the observation period, the students’ fitness was evaluated through different tests belonging to the AlPHA-fitness Battery: horizontal jump test, course-navette test and dynamometry. Anthropometric parameters (weight and height) were measured to calculate the body mass index (BMI). Finally, the practice of extracurricular activities was analyzed through the PAQ-C questionnaire.

Results

After the registration period, it was observed that 86.67% of the students were active at recesses compared to 13.33% who were sedentary. Soccer being 50.82% the most practiced activity, followed by invented games with 23.77%. Students who perform PA on a regular basis, both at recess and after school, obtained better results in the course-navette and horizontal jump tests (p <0.002), as well as lower levels of BMI (p <0.005) , than the students who presented a more sedentary lifestyle. When they are segmented by gender, we observe that they behave in a similar way, although the physical condition of boys is slightly higher than that of girls. Girls showed more sedentary lifestyle during recess than boys.

Discussion

The activities that are carried out in extracurricular hours are those that less% presented in the increase of the Moderate-Vigorous AF. This aspect becomes more important in our study, since if we look at the results obtained through the questionnaire in relation to extracurricular activity, 63.16% of the participants in the study did not practice AF outside the school setting.

It has been described that recess contributes to 16% of the total healthy AF of the day, being 17.9% for boys and 15.6% for girls

Conclusion

We can conclude, after the analysis performed, that students who are active during recess get better results than sedentary students. Likewise, the development of a well-structured and organized game program during recess improves the physical condition of school children, resulting in improved health.