The Longitudinal Impact of NFL PLAY 60 Programming on Youth Aerobic Capacity and BMI.

INTRODUCTION: The NFL PLAY 60 campaign has actively promoted physical activity and healthy eating in youth through programs such as the PLAY 60 Challenge and Fuel Up to PLAY 60. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of NFL PLAY 60 programming on longitudinal trajectories of youth aerobic capacity and BMI.

STUDY DESIGN: Data were from the NFL PLAY 60 FitnessGram Partnership Project, a large participatory research project designed to promote physical activity and healthy eating among Kindergarten through 12th grade children and adolescents.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: The programming was led by teachers in school settings across 32 NFL franchise markets. A range of 50,000-100,000 students from 497 schools completed FitnessGram assessments annually starting in 2011 and continuing through 2015. The analysis was conducted in 2015.

INTERVENTION: Adoption of NFL PLAY 60 programming was encouraged but not required and the program implementation was evaluated each year. The adoption was evaluated through self-reported annual survey.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: School assessments of aerobic capacity and BMI were evaluated using FitnessGram standards to calculate the percentage of students meeting the Healthy Fitness Zone for each test. Growth curve modeling was used to estimate the longitudinal trajectories.

RESULTS: About 19% of schools were classified as programming schools. Annual improvements in aerobic capacity were significantly greater in schools that participated in the programs for both girls (3.0%, p<0.01) and boys (2.9%, p<0.01) compared with non-programming schools. The annual improvements in BMI Healthy Fitness Zone achievement were also higher in girls (1.3%, p<0.05) and in boys (1.2%, p<0.05) from schools that participated in the programs versus non-participating schools. Schools that implemented the programs for the entire 4-year period tended to have better improvements in aerobic capacity than schools enrolled for only 2 or 3 years (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The results of these longitudinal analyses support the utility of the NFL PLAY 60 physical activity promotion programs for improving youth aerobic capacity and potentially helping to reverse the prevalence of overweight/obesity. However, the overall program adoption rate is low.