Assessment of levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in physical education classes using 3-dimensional accelerometer: Competition domain

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of levels of physical activity in considering gender and different types of competition-oriented physical activity classes using three- dimensional accelerometers. [Methods] A total of 981 students(505 male students, 476 female students) in six different types of physical education classes were participated in this study. All of the six different types of physical education classes were competition-oriented classes, and levels of physical activity were accessed by three-dimensional accelerometers. Data were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA. [Results] First, descriptive analyses of participation time of levels of physical activity showed that MVPA of physical education classes is 10.26 mins (22.89%) on average, and, MVPA showed differently in different types of physical education classes in the order of T ball(14.61 mins), flying disk(12.61 mins), soccer(10.78 mins), volley ball(10.56 mins), basketball(9.64 mins), and table tennis(5.73 mins). Second, female students showed significantly lower levels of MVPA in all the different types of physical education classes. Third, post-hoc analyses showed that significantly higher levels of MVPA were found in T ball physical education classes and significantly lower levels of MVPA were found in table tennis physical education classes, compared to other types of physical education classes. [Conclusions] MVPA in physical education classes is not satisfied with recommended MVPA, and MVPA in Korean physical education classes is lower than MVPA in same types of physical education classes in other countries. In addition, significant mean differences of MVPA are found between male and female students, and new sports physical education classes show higher levels of MVPA compared to classic sports physical education classes. These results indicate that competition oriented physical education classes widely used in Korea need to find ways to increase MVPA and to overcome different levels of MVPA between male and female students.