Study aim: Over the past decade there have been numerous efforts to identify how many steps/day children should accumulate. Recommendations range from 10,000 to 16,500 steps/day. The purpose of this article was to examine the percentage of elementary school aged children meeting nine different sets of steps/day recommendations. Material and methods: 786 Southwestern US children (410 girls, BMI 19.3±4.2) wore the Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 pedometer and recorded their steps/day for 7 consecutive days. Mean steps/day was calculated and the percent-age of students meeting each of the various steps/day recommendations was determined. Results: Children averaged 11,113±3,666 steps/day. Sixty-one percent of all children met a minimum of 10,000 steps/day. Thirty-six percent met the most widely used recommendation of 11,000 and 13,000 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. Using BMI referenced recommendations, between 10-52% of children met various guidelines. Conclusions: Southwestern US children in the current sample are not getting enough daily activity to meet the ma-jority of step recommendations. Findings suggest that less than 33% of children are active for 60 minutes of physical activity (inferred from one of the guidelines) a day and only 36% would qualify for the Presidential Active Life-styles Award. Additional school and home-based physical activity programming is clearly needed.
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There have been well-documented increases in overweight and obese children, sedentary lifestyles, and increased prevalence of a hypokinetic disease over the past 20 years. Thus understanding the physical activity patterns of children is essential for developing effective interventions. Little evidence exists that illustrates the contribution of weekend, physical education, and non-physical education days to overall physical activity patterns of children. The purpose of the study was to examine differences in pedometer-determined physical activity patterns of fourth and fifth grade children during weekend, physical education and non-physical education days. Three hundred and sixty-three children (8-11 years old) from six Southwestern USA elementary schools participated by wearing pedometers (Yamax Digiwalker SW-200) for seven consecutive days. Children recorded their steps at arrival to school and when they woke up and went to bed on weekend days. During weekdays, the fourth and fifth grade children averaged 13,196 ± 3,334 and 11,295 ± 3,168 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. This is compared to a weekend average of 7,660 ± 4,647steps/day (boys) and 7,317 ± 4,062 steps/day (girls). Children were significantly more active on physical education days, averaging 12,979 steps/day (14,197 ± 4,697 steps/day for boys and 12,058 ± 3,772 steps/day for girls),compared to non-physical education school days, when they accumulated 11,809 steps/day (12,788 ± 3,600 steps/day for boys and 11,047 ± 3,382 steps/day for girls). Based on the findings in this study, children and youth are more active during school days than on weekend days. Furthermore, children are more active on physical education days than non-physical education days. These findings suggest that increased physical activity programming and interventions during weekend days may be needed to increase physical activity. The expansion of school-based physical education across more school days may also serve to increase children's physical activity during the school week.
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Study aim: To examine the pedometer steps taken during the school-day by American Indian children during all four seasons.Material and methods: Participants included third-sixth grade children (n = 157) aged 9.6±1.07 (boys) and 9.7±1.2 (girls) attending school from one Southwestern US American Indian community. Children had a mean BMI of 23.9±7.7 with 70% being classified as overweight or obese. Children wore a pedometer (Yamax Digiwalker SW-200) for 20 days (5 days per season).Results: Children accumulated 4762±1544 (boys) and 4408±1194 (girls) steps/day across the four seasons with the highest totals occurring during the Fall (4899, males; 4796, females) and the lowest totals during the Winter (4463, males; 4043, females). Repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant differences in daily school-day steps across seasons. Children classified as normal weight averaged 5146±1688 steps/day, overweight children averaged 5020±1333 steps/day, and obese children accumulated 4275±1123 steps/day.Conclusions: PA stayed relatively consistent across seasons in this sample of children. However, children were the least active during Winter months. With 70% of the current sample being classified as overweight and with American Indian children at greater risk for numerous hypokinetic diseases there is a clear need for additional school-day PA opportunities.
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