1. Hemal Shroff, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Health Systems Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences

2. 
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Relationship between physical activity (sport)
and healthy behaviour
Literature on sport and avoiding illness
Literature on sport and avoiding risky
behaviour
Literature on sport and promoting healthy
behaviour

3. 
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Building body image
Positive habit forming
Link with NCD’s later in life

4. 
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Assess and map the play patterns of children
Explore the food, alcohol and substance
consumption patterns of the children
Ascertain the relationship as well as the
influence between the above two factors (i.e.
play and nutritious food/alcohol/substance
usage).
Compare the food and substance consumption
patterns between children enrolled in Magic bus
programme and those not enrolled in the
programme.

5. The sample consisted of 300 adolescents
The mean age was 12.82 (SD = 1.04)
150 were from the magic bus programme and 150
were not.
 There were 123 girls and 177 boys, but these were
approximately similarly divided in the two groups
(MB = 93 boys and 57 girls; non MB = 85 boys and 66
girls)
 There were 100 adolescents each from
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

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6. Tobacco use (smoked, smokeless) – ever freq.,
duration, number of cigarettes/bidis,
 Alcohol – ever, frequency, duration
 Inhalants – ever, frequency, time
 Play patterns – kind of play, who with,
frequency (weekly), time
 Food consumption – healthy food intake,
unhealthy food intake
 Other variables – age, family income, pocket
money, BMI, school enrollment status, grade


7. Engaged in some group physical activity = 264
adolescents.
 Mean time spent on play (whole sample) reported in
minutes/weekly: (SD = )
 There was a significant difference in time spent on
physical activity between the two groups.
 The mean value for MB children was 528
minutes/weekly (SD = 396) while for non-magic bus
children the mean value was 348 minutes/weekly
(SD = 449).


8. Who played with
Other children
(boys and/or
girls)
Friends:
What was played
Cricket or
equivalent (batting
and bowling)
Football
Kho-kho
Kabaddi
Bhaiya/CYL
Teacher/Sir/Mad
am
Running
Badminton/surya
namaskar/langdi
Players/members
Leaders

9. A total of 7 children reported ever trying alcohol. Of
these 3 reported current use of alcohol.
 When asked how much they had tried it, the highest
percentage of children had tried it only once (N = 3;
42%).
 Among those currently consuming alcohol, the
frequency of use was 1.5 days in a month.
 There was no significant difference between magic
bus and non-magic bus children in any of the
alcohol consumption variables.


10. 
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In the total sample, 50 children reported ever trying
tobacco products.
When asked how much they had tried it, the highest
percentage of children had tried it for more than one
month (N = 31; 63%) and the average duration was 2
months.
More MB children have ever
tried tobacco (39) in
comparison with non-MB
adolescents (11) and this
difference is significant.

11. There were a total of 19 adolescents currently using
tobacco (smoked and/or smokeless). Approximately
7 children reported consuming tobacco in both
smoked and smokeless forms.
 The difference between the two groups was small
and non-significant (4 versus 3 for MB and non-MB
children respectively for tobacco in smoked forms).
 The difference in smokeless tobacco consumption is
also small and non-significant (10 vs 8 for MB and
non MB children).


12. 40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
6
Magic bus non-magic
bus
Ever tried
alcohol
5
4
3
Current use
alcohol
2
1
0
Magic bus
Non-magic
bus
Ever tried
tobacco
Current use
tobacco

13. A total of 5 children from the sample reported ever
trying inhalants.
 They used terms like "gul" or "solution" to describe
the products they were using.
 Out of these 5 children, 3 reported current use. The
ones reporting current use stated they had been
using them for 2 months.
 There were no differences in the number of
adolescents using inhalants between the two
groups.


14. Healthy food intake (fruits, vegetables, milk, milk
products and eggs) was roughly the same for the
children enrolled in the magic bus programme and
those not enrolled (MB = 22.07; Non-MB = 22.66).
 Unhealthy food intake (fried food, cakes, biscuits,
aereated and non-aereated sweetened drinks) was
significantly different between the children enrolled
in the magic bus programmes and those not
enrolled (MB = 13.8; Non-MB= 14.97). Thus,
adolescents enrolled in the Magic bus programmes
ate less unhealthy food.


15. 
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Engaging in physical activity was significantly
related to unhealthy and healthy food intake.
There were no relationships between physical
activity and amount of
tobacco/alcohol/inhalants used or duration or
frequency.
This may be due to the small numbers of
adolescents engaging in use.

16. The children not enrolled in the magic bus
programmes reported eating significantly more
unhealthy food.
 More children from the Magic bus programmes had
attempted using tobacco, but the number of current
users were not very different between the two
groups.
 Pattern of use in tobacco was found to be similar as
for alcohol.
 The number of adolescents who had ever tried
inhalants and those currently using them were
approximately the same in both groups.


17.  The connection between engaging in physical
activity and other health-related behaviours exists.
 This connection appears to
support the notion that
engaging in physical
activity helps individuals
make better choices in
terms of not engaging
in substance use and
eating better.

18. 
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What does all this mean for NCD’s?
What are the steps forward in terms of
the magic bus programmes?
What are the steps forward in terms of
future research?

19. THANK YOU