Health Objectives for the Nation
Participation of High School Students
in School Physical Education -- United States, 1990
Regular physical activity increases a person's ability to
perform daily activities with greater vigor and may reduce the
risk for specific health problems, including coronary heart disease
(1), hypertension (2), noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (3),
colon cancer (4), and depression (5), as well as lower all-cause
death rates (6). In addition to extracurricular activities (e.g.,
sports and recreational organizations), high school physical
education (PE) classes provide an opportunity to ensure a minimal,
regular amount of desirable physical activity and help establish
physical activity patterns that may extend into adulthood. This
report examines the prevalence of self-reported enrollment,
attendance, and participation in PE classes by students in grades
9-12.
The national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is
a component of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which
periodically measures the prevalence of priority health-risk
behaviors among youth through comparable national, state, and
local surveys (7). In the 1990 national school-based YRBS, a
three-stage sample design was used to obtain a representative
sample of 11,631 students in grades 9-12 in the 50 states, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Students
were asked 1) if they were enrolled in PE classes, 2) how many days
they had attended PE classes during the past 2 weeks, and 3) during
how many PE classes they had engaged in at least 20 minutes of
light to heavy exercise during the past 2 weeks.
Of all students in grades 9-12, 43.5% of males and 52.0% of
females reported that they were not enrolled in PE classes (Table
1). In addition, 21.5% of students (males, 24.1%; females, 19.0%)
reported that they attended PE classes daily. Daily attendance in
PE classes decreased substantially from 9th grade through 12th
grade (9th grade, 34.4%; 10th grade, 25.7%; 11th grade, 15.1%; and
12th grade, 10.9%).
Of students who reported attending PE class during the past 2
weeks, about one third (33.2%) reported exercising 20 minutes or
more in PE class three to five times per week (Table 2). Almost one
fourth (23.4%) reported that they did not exercise 20 minutes or
more during any PE class. Females (28.5%) were significantly more
likely than males (18.6%) to report not exercising 20 minutes or
more during any PE class during the past 2 weeks.
Reported by: Div of Chronic Disease Control and Community
Intervention, Div of Adolescent and School Health, National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.
Editorial Note
Editorial Note: One of the national health promotion and disease
prevention objectives for the year 2000 (objective 1.8) is to
"increase to at least 50 percent the proportion of children and
adolescents in 1st through 12th grade who participate in daily
school physical education" (8). The findings in this report
indicate that, to attain this objective, the percentage of
9th-12th-grade students attending daily PE classes must markedly
increase. However, enrollment in PE, a necessary prerequisite for
attendance in PE classes, may have decreased (Figure 1), from a
total of 65% in 1984 to 48% in 1990 (based on a comparison of
findings in this report with results from the 1984 National
Children and Youth Fitness Study (9)).
To develop healthy physical activity patterns, students must
not only attend PE classes but also engage in physical activity
during those classes. Specifically, national health objective 1.9
aims to "increase to at least 50 percent the proportion of school
physical education class time that students spend being physically
active, preferably engaged in lifetime physical activities" (8).
Findings in this report indicate that the amount of PE class time
devoted to physical activity is substantially below this goal.
To improve the health of youth through PE, parents, teachers,
school administrators, school board members, pediatricians, family
physicians, and public health officials need to implement policies
that ensure every student's enrollment and participation in daily
PE programs and develop programs that provide at least 20 minutes
of daily physical activity (10).
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