Contribution of extended school hours to the nutritional and physical activity profile of schoolchildren

To evaluate the influence of the amount of time spent in school on food intake, nutritional status, and physical activity profile. In this cross-sectional study, student data from two programs were compared in a city school in Belo Horizonte: integrated school (EI), in which students spend longer hours in school, and traditional school (ET), where students stay in school one shift only. First to 6th year students were studied in the first half of 2010. Demographic, socioeconomic, and physical data, as well as anthropometric activity and food intake were assessed. Two hundred and ninety-four students participated in the study, 53.0% from the EI program. Overweight was observed in 14.5% and 17.6% of EI and ET students, respectively (P = 0.781). A higher median frequency of physical activity was identified in EI (4.5 [2.0-7.0] hours/week vs. 2.0 [2.0-5.2] in ET; P = 0.004). EI students also had more adequate intake of carbohydrates (82.9% vs. 76.1% in ET; P = 0.01) and fruit (81.8% vs. 18.2% in ET; P = 0.004), and more adequate number of daily meals (67.6% vs. 32.4% in ET; P = 0.002). Longer hours school provided better dietary parameters and favored physical activity among students. Such findings may be useful to foster change in anthropometric parameters to be investigated in the long term.