The effectiveness of regular physical education program on obesity among elementary school students in Iran

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of regular physical education (PE) on obesity among Iranian elementary school. A quasi experimental design was for this study. Two Schools, boys and girls, in Tehran were randomly selected. 50 obese students selected from each school according purposive sampling method and divided randomly to experimental and control groups. Before starting the experiment student’s BMI were measured as a pretest. Regular physical education program three times a week for 12 session were done. After the last session student’s BMI were measured again as a post test data. Our findings showed the significantly differences between before and after physical education training in all of the quantitative parameters including weight and measures BMI in both genders. However, there were no significantly differences between weight and measured BMI between boys and girls after physical education training, but these parameters showed significantly changes in every group individually. Although measured BMI showed significantly differences after physical education program in both genders but the BMI percentile not change significantly. Our results suggested that friendly physical education programs at schools are effective on control weight.