The effectiveness of school-based physical activity interventions on health-related fitness and BMI in South Korea: a three-level meta-analysis.

Background: As empirical evidence has accumulated, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have documented the effectiveness of school-based physical activity interventions on health-related fitness and BMI. Nevertheless, the majority of reviews have been conducted across different contexts, leaving a lack of evidence on the effectiveness in unique contexts, such as South Korea. The purpose of this three-level meta-analysis was to determine the effectiveness of school-based physical activity interventions on health-related fitness and body mass index (BMI) in South Korea. Methods: Adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, this study conducted a literature search, selected eligible intervention studies, and collected relevant data. Then, a three-level meta-analysis was performed in R software with moderator analysis, heterogeneity testing, and publication bias assessment. Results: The three-level meta-analysis of the included studies ( Conclusion: Consistent with previous research, the findings of this study suggest that school-based physical activity interventions may improve health-related fitness and BMI in Korean children and adolescents, providing potential empirical evidence to inform future program development. However, generalizability of the findings should be limited due to methodological concerns, such as small sample sizes across intervention studies and the quality of the intervention studies.