Elementary School Gym Class Reduces Obesity Risk

Including an extra session of physical education in the timetable of elementary school children may have a big impact on their health later in life, new research suggests.  John Cawley, Cornell professor of policy analysis and management, and colleagues found that an extra 60-minutes of physical education per week lowered BMI and reduced the probability that a fifth-grader is obese by 4.8%. However, the benefits of extra physical education were mainly seen in boys – it only had a negligible effect on girls. The authors believe that this is at least partly because physical education and other physical activities are complements for boys (increased physical education leads boys to be more active in structured physical activities like organized sports), but substitutes for girls (increased physical education leads girls to spend more time watching television).