Physical exercise knowledge, attitude and behavior among the Beijing primary and middle school students in 2014

Objective To understand knowledge,attitude and behavior of physical exercise among primary and middle school students in Beijing,in order to guide the schools to carry out specific physical exercise intervention.Methods A total of 6 421 students of grade 3-5 and grade 7-8 from 16 primary and middle schools in Dongcheng,Xicheng,Changping,Fangshan districts in Beijing were selected by using multi-stage clustering sampling and investigated with questionnaire survey.Results Overall awareness on physical exercise was 53.55%,with students in junior school (58.36%) and suburb area (56.98%) higher than primary school (50.62%) and urban areas (47.87%),differences were statistically significant.The report rate of willing to take physical exercise for one hour per day was 49.49%,75.11% of students were favorite of physical education class,and 60.36% were favorite of exercises during the break.About 58.78% of students reported physical activity for at least 1 hour per day,only 8.72% students spent their break time outside doing exercise or relaxing,32.38% students claimed had physical exercise at home more than 5 times a week.Conclusion The primary and middle school students lack of physical exercise basic knowledge and physical exercise at home and school.School health education on exercise needs to be strengthened.