Background: Ensuring moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and reducing sedentary behavior (SB) are beneficial to children’s health. Although previous studies have pointed out that MVPA was associated with SB, little is known about the relationship between these two outcomes when objectively measured separately on both school and non-school days. Determining whether MVPA can replace SB for children can help in identifying targets and opportunities for intervention.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between objectively measured MVPA and SB among boys and girls on school and non-school days.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected annually from 2015 through 2017, in February and March. A total of 278 children (grades 4–6) participated in the study and wore a triaxial accelerometer to monitor their activities. Children were asked to wear the accelerometer on their waist, for at least 7 consecutive days during all the waking hours, removing it during water-based activities such as showering, bathing, or swimming. A partial Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was performed, and the correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the relationship between MVPA and SB controlled grade and wearing time for both sexes on school and non-school days. The correlation coefficients were compared using the Fisher’s z-transformation.

Results: Total 225 (108boys, 117girls) and 227 (105boys, 122girls) children met the criteria for wearing the accelerometer on school days and non-school days, respectively. Objectively measured MVPA and SB showed sex-based differences. Boys engaged in daily MVPA time longer than girls on both school and non-school days. In addition, daily SB time of boys was less than those of girls on school day. Significant inverse relationships were observed between MVPA and SB in both boys (−0.63 and −0.67) and girls (−0.64 and −0.72) on school and non-school days. The correlation coefficients were no significant sex differences in the z-scores. Additionally, the correlation coefficients for school days were comparable with those for non-school days regardless of sex.

Conclusion: This study has shown that there is dependent relationship between MVPA and SB in children regardless of the day. Namely, these findings suggest that targeted health education program that increases MVPA and reduces SB can promote a physically active lifestyle among children.

Background: In Japan, special support education for students with developmental disorders became available in regular classes from April 2007. It has been reported that students with developmental disorders tend to have more health problems than those without. Support is needed from an early stage to reduce difficulties in the daily life of students with developmental disorders and to prevent secondary issues such as bullying and lack of acceptance by peers.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a health support program to improve the skills of Yogo teachers in providing appropriate support to students with developmental disorders.

Methods: Survey 1 was conducted to clarify the actual situation of elementary school students with developmental disorders and analyze the support provided by Yogo teachers. A total of 1,000 public elementary schools were randomly selected nationwide for Survey 1. Questionnaires were sent by mail to the school principals for distribution to Yogo teachers. The survey 1 was conducted between October and December 2017. The contents of the survey included circumstances of students with developmental disorders, the difficulties Yogo teachers face in relation to students with developmental disorders, and the respondents’ hopes related to future training on developmental disorders. Based on the results of Survey 1, a health support program was organized, and a pilot study of the program was conducted (Survey 2). A two-day training session was held in August 2018 to verify the effectiveness of the program. Questionnaires were administered before, immediately after, and three months after the training to verify the effectiveness of the program.

Results: In Survey 1, the authors analyzed the 212 valid responses (valid response rate = 21.2%). There were students with developmental disorders (including undiagnosed cases) at 199 schools (93.9%). The Yogo teachers with ≥6 years of experience were able to smoothly prepare for health examination (p<0.01). In addition, 84.4% had taken the training on developmental disorders. However, there were few trainings focusing on the role of Yogo teachers, and most of them wanted to learn specific support methods. In Survey 2, we organized a health support program with specific support methods for Yogo teachers and conducted a pilot study. In Survey 2, there were 20 Yogo teachers in the training, with a mean age of 38.2 (SD 9.93). The content of the program was evaluated by all the Yogo teachers as appropriate, easy to understand, and useful.

Conclusion: The health support program for students with developmental disorders was positively evaluated by the Yogo teachers who participated in the training. The findings of this study suggest the said program could help Yogo teachers improve their health support skills.