The purpose of this research was to evaluate the results from the three-year practices on physical fitness improvement for elementary school children. The practice was held among approximately 700 elementary school children, the first through sixth graders from 4 schools, in Isumi-shi of Chiba prefecture.
In order to verify the effectiveness of this research, 8 different physical fitness tests and 16 life-style related questionnaires were made 5 times, and the primary results were as indicated below.
(1) Based on a chain result of three-years, held among the first through forth graders, the children' physical fitness tests points were improved upwards regardless of their age and sex, on the other hand, the coefficient of variation decreased greatly.
(2) Comparing the children' physical fitness tested twice among the third through sixth graders, once held in July, 2004 and the other held in June, 2006, the data showed that Rank A occupied 19.7% as of July, 2004 and 46.3% as of June, 2006. As for Rank E, it showed 7.5% and 2.3%. Moreover, a significant difference was witnessed through all these results (p<.05).
(3) Comparing the lifestyle among the same group of students above, in July, 2004 and in December, 2006, a significant difference was witnessed in up to 14 items, such as physical activity duration, taking breakfast, TV viewing time, pleasure of school life, motivations in daily life (p<.05).
In conclusion, the physical fitness of the children showed remarkable improvement, and it seemed that their life-style has made into a great transition.
