Ambulatory physical activity levels of white and South Asian children in Central England

Aims:  To assess ambulatory physical activity in white and south Asian children from Central England and to examine variation in activity between weekdays and weekends. Methods:  536 primary school children [255 boys and 281 girls, mean age (SD) = 9.6 (1.0) years] wore a sealed pedometer for 4 days...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta Paediatrica 2012-04, Vol.101 (4), p.e156-e162
Main Authors: Duncan, Michael J, Birch, Samantha, Al-Nakeeb, Yahya, Nevill, Alan M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actigraphy - instrumentation
Age
Asian Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data
Bangladesh - ethnology
Body Mass Index
Child
England
Ethnicity
European Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
India - ethnology
Male
Motor Activity
Pakistan - ethnology
Pedometer
Social Class
Socioeconomic factors
Steps
Time Factors
Weight status
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aims:  To assess ambulatory physical activity in white and south Asian children from Central England and to examine variation in activity between weekdays and weekends. Methods:  536 primary school children [255 boys and 281 girls, mean age (SD) = 9.6 (1.0) years] wore a sealed pedometer for 4 days (2 weekend and 2 weekdays). Repeated measures analysis of covariance was used to examine weekend versus weekday, gender, ethnic and socio‐economic status differences in steps/day controlling for age, hours of daylight and body mass index (BMI). Results:  Children attained significantly higher mean steps/day during weekdays than weekends (p = 0.001) with age being more strongly associated with weekend than weekday steps/day (p = 0.014). The decline in steps/day from weekdays to weekends was greater in high compared to low socio‐economic status children (p = 0.002). White children attained higher mean steps/day than south Asian children (p = 0.015). BMI was negatively associated with steps/day (p = 0.004). 39.2 and 29.9% of white and south Asian children met the BMI‐referenced cut‐offs for health. Conclusion:  Physical activity was greater during weekdays compared to weekends, was associated with BMI, age and socio‐economic status and white children were more active than south Asian children.
ISSN:0803-5253
1651-2227
DOI:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02566.x