Top Pages

A-Z Index (Resources & Services)

Resource Guides:
All | Families | Professionals | Schools | Non-English | Multimedia

MCH Alert Newsletter

Search

Top Pages
Home  ::  A - Z Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z   ::  Search

Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents
Knowledge Path

Introduction

This knowledge path about physical activity and children and adolescents has been compiled by the Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University. It offers a selection of current, high-quality resources that analyze data, describe public health campaigns and other promotion programs, and report on research aimed at identifying promising strategies for improving physical activity levels within families, schools and after-school programs, child care and early childhood education settings, and communities. The knowledge path also provides resources about physical activity for children and adolescents with special health care needs. The knowledge path is aimed at health professionals, policymakers, educators, child care providers, community organizers, and families, and it will be updated periodically.

Related knowledge paths:
Nutrition in Children and Adolescents
Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents

Overview

See Physical Activity and the Health of Young People, rev. ed. (2008) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This fact sheet highlights the benefits of regular physical activity and the long-term consequences of sedentary behavior for children and adolescents. It also presents participation rates in physical activity and in physical education classes for children and adolescents.

Resources for Professionals

Web Sites

Additional Electronic Publications

Databases

The databases listed below are excellent tools for identifying data, additional literature and research, and programs addressing physical activity. Many of the entries below contain tips on how to use the databases efficiently. Please note that databases vary in how terms should be entered; for example, some require quotation marks and others don't. Enter search phrases as shown in bold below.

Data
Literature and Research Databases
  • AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access). Contains bibliographic information for agricultural literature, including many child and adolescent nutrition publications from the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service; state child nutrition agencies; Nutrition Education and Training Program products; Team Nutrition grantees; cooperative extension program materials; and materials from associations, universities, and the private sector. AGRICOLA is organized into two data sets (books and journal articles). To identify books and/or articles on the topic, click on Keyword Search. Enter the terms, children adolescents and select "any of these" and "Subject" in the two fields to the right. Click "And". In the next row, enter fitness exercise and select "any of these" and "Subject" in the two fields to the right. Click on "Set Limits" to narrow your search (e.g., add a publication date limit). Use the thesaurus to identify terms for related searches. AGRICOLA is a service of the National Agricultural Library (NAL).

  • ClinicalTrials.gov. Provides access to information about clinical research studies for a wide range of diseases, conditions, and health behaviors. Included are a summary of the purpose of the study, information about recruiting status, criteria for patient participation, location of the trial, and contact information. To identify studies, click on Search for Clinical Trials, enter the search phrase ("physical activity" OR exercise) AND (children OR adolescents), and click on Search. Click on the Refine Search tab to narrow your search results. ClinicalTrials.gov is a service of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

  • Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE). Contains summaries of systematic reviews that have met strict quality criteria. Included reviews must be about the effects of interventions. Each summary also provides a critical commentary on the quality of the review. To identify reviews, enter the phrase, ("physical activity" OR exercise) AND (children OR adolescents) in the search box. Click on search to get your results. DARE is produced and maintained by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York.

  • HP2010 Information Access Project: Physical Fitness. Provides an automatic search mechanism for published literature indexed in PubMed related to the Healthy People 2010 physical activity and fitness objectives. Also links to the narrative for each objective and the complete chapter about physical activity and fitness in the text, Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health (2nd ed) (2000). This service is provided by the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, a collaboration of federal agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries.

  • Maternal and Child Health Library at the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (NCEMCH), Georgetown University. Maintains several databases to collect, manage, and disseminate knowledge about maternal and child health (MCH), with special emphasis on knowledge gained from initiatives and programs supported by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). The library’s bibliographic database is

    MCHLine®. Comprises an online catalog of materials in the Maternal and Child Health Library. To identify items about physical activity, conduct three searches in the keyword field of the database search form using the terms "physical activity", "physical education", and "physical fitness". To narrow your searches, enter a single publication year or range of years, and/or add keywords (e.g., obesity, school). There will be overlap in the records identified in these searches.

    Also see the MCH Organizations Database.

  • National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC). Contains evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related materials for health professionals. Identify guidelines by selecting Detailed Search in the Search box. Enter "physical activity" in the Keyword field. Scroll down on the search form to select Age of Target Population and Publication Date. The database is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT): RePORTER. Provides access to reports, data, and analyses of NIH research activities, including information on NIH expenditures and the results of NIH-supported research. To identify information on the topic, conduct two searches. First, enter "physical activity" children in the search field and click on Submit query to get your results. Conduct a second search by entering "physical activity" adolescents in the search field and clicking on Submit query to get your results. There will be overlap in the records identified in these searches. Narrow your searches by selecting a state or adding terms to other search fields.

  • PubMed. Contains more than 19 million citations for biomedical articles from MEDLINE and life science journals. Citations may include links to full-text articles from PubMed Central or publisher web sites. To identify citations on the topic, enter the term exercise in the search box. Click on Limits and make the following selections on the page: select a date (e.g. Published in the last 2 years); click on Languages: English; Click on Species: Humans; Click on Ages: All Child: 0-18 years; and select Search Field Tags: MeSH Major Topic. Add search terms to further limit the search (e.g., exercise AND environment design). Use the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) database to identify additional search terms (e.g., physical education). PubMed is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Also see the HP2010 Information Access Project for access to published literature related to the Healthy People 2010 objectives about physical activity and children and adolescents.

  • Also see the Active Living Research Literature Database, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Database, and the NSBA School Health Resource Database.
Programs Databases

Electronic Newsletters and Online Discussion Groups

Resources for Families

Resources on Specific Aspects of Physical Activity

Child Care and Early Childhood Education

Community Design

School-Based Physical Activity

Special Health Care Needs

Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents: Knowledge Path, 5th ed. (March 2010). (Updated: July 2010).
Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., Maternal and Child Health Library.
Reviewers: Cicley Gay, Women's Sports Foundation; Olivia K. Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., Maternal and Child Health Library.

Share |