School-based physical activity programs for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 (review) (2013)

The Cochrane Reviews are a database of systematic reviews and meta-analyses which summarize and interpret the results of medical research. The Cochrane Library aims to make the results of well-conducted controlled trials readily available and is a key resource in evidence-based medicine.

The purpose of this systematic review was to summarise the evidence of the effectiveness of school-based interventions in promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18. This review included 44 studies that evaluated the impact of school-based interventions focused on increasing physical activity among more than 36,000 children and adolescents internationally. Duration of interventions ranged from 12 weeks to six years and no two school-based physical activity promotion programmes had the same combination of interventions. Data collection methods for outcomes were reported to be valid and reliable in a little over half of the included studies.