1-year Follow-up On A Novel Summer Camp Integrating Physical, Psychological, and Educational Health In Youth

Numerous youth summer programs focus upon physical fitness, nutritional health, psychological well-being, or education. Few, however, have integrated all these elements into a single program. The Translational Health in Nutrition and Kinesiology (THINK) program provides an integrative nutrition and exercise science curriculum that is interfaced with social emotional learning (SEL) and STEM education to enhance healthy behaviors in youth. PURPOSE: to determine whether the THINK program could improve physical fitness variables of participants in a 6-week program who also returned the following year. METHODS: Participants from South Miami were enrolled in THINK (n = 24, 13 males, 9 females, 12.03 + 0.56 years). Physical characteristics and fitness levels were recorded at baseline and post-testing for two successive summer period enrollments with four time points of data collection (T1, T2, T3, T4). Means and standard error values were evaluated for all dependent variables. Paired samples t-tests (SPSS version 29) were used to determine changes. RESULTS: Regarding physical characteristics, reductions in body fat percentage (p < 0.05, T1-T2, T3-T4) and increases in skeletal muscle were observed (p < 0.05, T3-T4). Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.001, T1-T2, T3-T4), power (p < 0.01, T3-T4), flexibility (p < 0.001, T3-T4), agility (p < 0.05, T1-T4), and muscular endurance (p < 0.05, T2-T3) were found. CONCLUSION: An integrative summer fitness program can result in improvements in physical fitness that can be maintained across a 1-year period in as little as 6-weeks.