Abstract
<p>Many intervention and prevention programs targeting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents have been effective, however, few have targeted changes in physical fitness, health-related variables, and cognitive executive function in a single study. The purpose of this study was to compare the Translational Health in Nutrition and Kinesiology (THINK), a comprehensive wellness based after-school program, to a traditional YMCA after-school program on measures of physical fitness, health-related variables, and executive cognitive function in a group of 102 elementary school, minority children (mean age= 9.2 years) following a 10-week intervention period. This study was based on a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design. A series of two way mixed design ANOVA analyses were used to predict effects on physical fitness, health-related, and executive cognitive function measures by time and group. When a significant main effect was found, Sidak pairwise comparisons were performed to establish where differences were found. Significant interactions were found for all physical fitness (p<0.01) and health-related (p<0.01) variables. The THINK group showed improvements in all physical fitness (p<0.01) and health-related (p<0.01) variables post-testing, while the traditional YMCA group showed either no change or significant decreases. Furthermore, a significant interaction was found for average reaction time (p<0.01) with the THINK group showing significant increases (p<0.01) while the traditional YMCA evidenced no improvements post-testing. Although no statistically significant interactions were observed for percent accuracy (p=0.15), the THINK group evidenced significant improvements (p<0.01) while the traditional YMCA showed no changes post-testing. Our findings showed that a comprehensive after-school program, THINK, was more effective in improving physical fitness, health-related, and executive cognitive variables compared to a traditional YMCA program. This lends support for establishing programs with a comprehensive approach to improve outcomes that may have positive effects on physical fitness, health, and academic performance in children.</p>