Research summary · Youth development
A year of multisport physical education and youth fitness
Thirty Danish schools with 1,652 pupils were randomized to usual physical education or three weekly 40-minute FIT FIRST 20 sessions for about 40 weeks. The consented analytical sample comprised 1,195 pupils.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Cluster-randomized controlled trial
- Journal
- Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
- Population / context
- School-based multisport physical education
What the publication reports
Adjusted improvement on the children's Yo-Yo endurance test was 54.9 metres greater with the programme, with a 95% confidence interval of 8.35–101.4 metres. Agility and lower-body power also improved, but psychological outcomes did not show clear intervention effects.
Limits and interpretation
Blinding and objective monitoring of session intensity were unavailable. Missing observations and consent-related exclusions warrant caution. Secondary outcomes were not adjusted for multiple comparisons and should be treated as exploratory; lasting effects remain uncertain.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
One-Year Effects of the FIT FIRST 20 High-Intensity and Multisport Physical Education Program on Physical Fitness and Psychological Outcomes in Early Adolescents: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42813573DOI: 10.1111/sms.70374Full text at the sourceReader discussion
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