Rethinking children’s physical activity interventions at school: A new context-specific approach

Abstract

A collective focus on average minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity may not always be the most appropriate choice. A wider range of outcomes may improve children's physical activity and health in the long-term. In this paper, we argue that greater consideration of school context is key in the design and analysis of school-based physical activity interventions and may help overcome existing limitations in the design of effective interventions and thus progress the field. While this focus on context-specific interventions and evaluation is untested, we hope to stimulate debate of the key issues to improve future physical activity intervention development and implementation.