Active School-Based Interventions to Interrupt Prolonged Sitting Improve Daily Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Sedentary behavior (SB) is a negative routine for health, especially during advancing age. Promoting an active lifestyle and reducing SB is a global endeavor. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of active school-based programs to interrupt prolonged sitting for daily physical activity (PA) and daily SB in children and adolescents. Methods: A systematic review was conducted. Clinical trials analyzing the effect of interrupting prolonged sitting with active breaks and classroom-based PA were included. Studies that implemented PA in class without interrupting prolonged sitting or those that implemented multimodal interventions were excluded. A systematic search was conducted in 6 databases: Medline, WOS, Cochrane Library, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL and EMBASE. Primary outcomes were daily PA and daily SB, while moderate-to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was considered a secondary outcome. Results: Six studies were included, with a total of 976 participants between 6–14 years. The interventions were heterogeneous in duration of the sitting time interruption (5–30 min), frequency (1–3 times per-day up to three times per-week) and total duration (five days to three years). 50% of the studies scored “high risk” of bias. Three meta-analyses were performed for daily PA, MVPA and SB, showing a significant improvement in the daily PA and MVPA. Conclusions: School-based programs aimed to interrupt prolonged sitting could be a good strategy to improve daily PA and MVPA levels. (Registration number: CRD42022358933).