TY - JOUR
T1 - Using accelerometers and global positioning system devices to assess gender and age differences in children's school, transport, leisure and home based physical activity
AU - Klinker, Charlotte Demant
AU - Schipperijn, Jasper
AU - Christian, Hayley
AU - Kerr, Jacqueline
AU - Ersbøll, Annette K
AU - Troelsen, Jens
N1 - Funding Information: The When Cities Move Children study is part of the Centre for Intervention Research in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark. The Centre is funded by Trygfonden and the Danish Cancer Society. The WCMC study and CDK is funded by a 5-year donation from Trygfonden. HC is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)/National Heart Foundation Early Career Fellowship (#1036350). The WCMC research team would like to thank all participating schools, students, and teachers. We thank the Haraldsgade Urban Renewal Project staff and the graduate students who assisted in the data collection, and others involved in the project. We thank Bernhard Snizek for his invaluable help in designing and building the database. Finally, we would like to thank Professor Bjørn Holstein for constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
PY - 2014/1/24
Y1 - 2014/1/24
N2 - Background: Knowledge on domain-specific physical activity (PA) has the potential to advance public health interventions and inform new policies promoting children's PA. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess domains (leisure, school, transport, home) and subdomains (e.g., recess, playgrounds, and urban green space) for week day moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) using objective measures and investigate gender and age differences.Methods: Participants included 367 Danish children and adolescents (11-16 years, 52% girls) with combined accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data (mean 2.5 days, 12.7 hrs/day). The Personal Activity and Location Measurement System and a purpose-built database assessed data in 15-second epochs to determine PA and assign epochs to 4 domains and 11 subdomains. Frequencies and proportions of time spent in MVPA were determined and differences assessed using multi-level modeling.Results: More than 90% of MVPA was objectively assigned to domains/subdomains. Boys accumulated more MVPA overall, in leisure, school and transport (all p < 0.05). Children compared with adolescents accumulated more MVPA, primarily through more school MVPA (p < 0.05). Boys spent a large proportion of time accumulating MVPA in playgrounds, active transport, Physical Education, sports facilities, urban green space and school grounds. Girls spent a significant proportion of time accumulating MVPA in active transport and playgrounds. No gender or age differences were found in the home domain.Conclusions: Large variations were found in PA frequency and intensity across domains/subdomains. Significant gender differences were found, with girls being less active in almost all domains and subdomains. Objectively measured patterns of PA across domains/subdomains can be used to better tailor PA interventions and inform future policies for promoting child PA.
AB - Background: Knowledge on domain-specific physical activity (PA) has the potential to advance public health interventions and inform new policies promoting children's PA. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess domains (leisure, school, transport, home) and subdomains (e.g., recess, playgrounds, and urban green space) for week day moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) using objective measures and investigate gender and age differences.Methods: Participants included 367 Danish children and adolescents (11-16 years, 52% girls) with combined accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data (mean 2.5 days, 12.7 hrs/day). The Personal Activity and Location Measurement System and a purpose-built database assessed data in 15-second epochs to determine PA and assign epochs to 4 domains and 11 subdomains. Frequencies and proportions of time spent in MVPA were determined and differences assessed using multi-level modeling.Results: More than 90% of MVPA was objectively assigned to domains/subdomains. Boys accumulated more MVPA overall, in leisure, school and transport (all p < 0.05). Children compared with adolescents accumulated more MVPA, primarily through more school MVPA (p < 0.05). Boys spent a large proportion of time accumulating MVPA in playgrounds, active transport, Physical Education, sports facilities, urban green space and school grounds. Girls spent a significant proportion of time accumulating MVPA in active transport and playgrounds. No gender or age differences were found in the home domain.Conclusions: Large variations were found in PA frequency and intensity across domains/subdomains. Significant gender differences were found, with girls being less active in almost all domains and subdomains. Objectively measured patterns of PA across domains/subdomains can be used to better tailor PA interventions and inform future policies for promoting child PA.
KW - movement
U2 - 10.1186/1479-5868-11-8
DO - 10.1186/1479-5868-11-8
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1479-5868
VL - 11
SP - 1
EP - 19
JO - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
JF - International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
IS - 1
M1 - 8
ER -