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Bright spots
Bright sports, physical activity investments that work: implementing brain breaks in Malaysian primary schools
  1. Garry Kuan1,2,
  2. Hussein Rizal1,
  3. Mawar Siti Hajar1,
  4. Ming-Kai Chin2,3,
  5. Magdalena Mo Ching Mok4,5
  1. 1 Exercise and Sport Science Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Malaysia
  2. 2 The Foundation for Global Community Health (GCH), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  3. 3 HOPSports, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  4. 4 Graduate Institute of Educational Information and Measurement, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan
  5. 5 Department of Psychology and Assessment Research Centre, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
  1. Correspondence to Dr Garry Kuan, Exercise and Sport Science Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia; garry{at}usm.my

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-100146

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    • Primary schools in the district of Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

    Target population

    • Primary school children in grades 4 and 5 (n=622 students up to December 2018). More schools are adopting this programme.

    What modes/types/domains of physical activity does the programme promote?

    • Moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity aimed improving health-related fitness—cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition.

    Which of the seven best investments does the programme address?

    • Education, making regular physical activity in schools the norm.

    What sectors does it involve?

    • Education.

    • Estimated reach of the programme.

    • Over 600 Malay primary schoolchildren per year.

    What is special about this programme?

    • This is the first web-based, digitalised physical activity that was adopted at a large scale in any Malaysian setting.

    Key programme details and contacts

    • Programme website: http://www.gchfoundation.org/; http://www.hopsports.com

    • Contact: garry@usm.my

    Background

    Although a child’s physical development is inseparable from his or her cognitive development, the Malaysian education system prioritises academic achievement over physical development. Malaysian children and adolescents engage in low levels of physical activity.1 As in many countries, there is a need to increase physical activity among Malay adolescent communities in Malaysia.

    To achieve this, the Global Community Health2 (GCH) and HOPSports3 introduced Brain BreaksPhysical Activity Solutions …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All the authors contributed to the drafting, developing, data collection and writing of this manuscript, which was led by the first author.

    • Funding This research was supported by the Research University’s individual grant (1001/PPSP/812149) from the Universiti Sains Malaysia. Besides, the Brain Breaks videos were supplied by the GCH foundations.

    • Competing interests This programme has been conducted without financial incentives from the Malaysian government or any private organisation.

    • Ethics approval The study received approval from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Human Research Ethics Committee (USM/JEPeM/18020104) and was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the International Declaration of Helsinki.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Full data evaluation is expected in April 2019.

    • Patient consent for publication Parental/guardian consent obtained.