Epidemiology & Public Health

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of My Body is Fit and Fabulous at School (MyBFF@school) program on the physical fitness of overweight and obese primary school children. The intervention group went through six months of MyBFF@school program which was 30 minutes of Small-Sided Games (SSG) session twice a week, replacing physical education sessions and additional one hour for extracurricular activities per week for nutrition and psychology component. Meanwhile, the control group underwent the standard physical education lesson and extracurricular activities. Physical fitness was assessed using Modified Harvard step test. Data were collected at baseline, month-3 and month-6 of the program and were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. At baseline, the mean physical fitness score of both intervention and control groups were comparable and denoted no significant differences. The fitness score in both groups showed significant improvement over 3 and 6 months, and at 6 months, the mean (SD) were 72.609 (4.51) intervention and 72.452 (5.10) control respectively. However, the intervention group showed better improvement than the control at month-6 (0.553 differences, p=0.026). We also found significant changes in the intervention girls and morbidly obese category. MyBFF@ school program improved physical fitness of the primary school children. The improvement in physical fitness was especially notable among girls and the morbidly obese category.