Outdoor time and physical activity increased after schoolyard renewal for the least-active children

Purpose: It remains unclear if schoolyard interventions ‘just’ provide more opportunities for those who are already physically active. Drawing on a mix of methods, the aim was to investigate how a schoolyard renewal combined with organisational changes influenced recess physical activity behaviour for the least-active children.
Methods: Using a quasi-experimental pre-post study design, data were collected at six Danish schools during spring in 2014 and 2016. 553 children at baseline and 439 children (grade 4-9) after renewals wore accelerometer and GPS for five school days. Based on mean minutes of recess moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per child per school, the least-active children were defined as all children in the lowest activity quartile at baseline and follow-up, respectively. Five children included in the lowest activity quartile at follow-up also participated in interviews.
Results: 135 children (70 % girls) at baseline and 108 (76% girls) at follow-up were categorised as the least-active children. During recess, outdoor time (12.1 min/day) and physical activity (4.4 min/day) increased significantly post-renewal for the least-active children. Interviews revealed positive perceptions of the new schoolyard features and outdoor recess policy. However, socialising with friends was assigned a higher priority than type and location of recess activities.
Conclusion: Combining schoolyard renewals with organisational changes has led to the least-active children spending more time, and becoming slightly more physically activity in the schoolyard during recess. However, future intervention studies should investigate if socialising can be used effectively as motivating factor to further increase recess physical activity among the least-active children.