Accelerometer Measured Level of Physical Activity Indoors and Outdoors During Preschool Time in Sweden and the United States

Abstract

Background:It is important to understand the correlates of physical activity (PA) to influence policy and create environments that promote PA among preschool children. We compared preschoolers’ PA in Swedish and in US settings and objectively examined differences boys’ and girls’ indoor and outdoor PA regarding different intensity levels and sedentary behavior.Methods:Accelerometer determined PA in 50 children with mean age 52 months, (range 40–67) was recorded during preschool time for 5 consecutive weekdays at 4 sites. The children wore an Actigraph GTIM Monitor.Results:Raleigh preschool children, opposite to Malmö preschoolers spent significantly more time indoors than outdoors (P < .001). Significantly more moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) was observed outdoors (P < .001) in both settings. Malmö children accumulated significantly more counts/min indoors (P < .001). The percent of MVPA during outdoor time did not differ between children at Raleigh and Malmö.Conclusion:Physical activity counts/minutes was significantly higher outdoors vs. indoors in both Malmö and Raleigh. Malmö preschoolers spent 47% of attendance time outdoors compared with 18% for Raleigh preschoolers which could have influenced the difference in preschool activity between the 2 countries. Time spent in MVPA at preschool was very limited and predominantly adopted outdoors.

Physical Activity of Preschool Children: A Review

“…As for the choice of the sample, two selected by convenience [10,3]. In total, 91 preschools were analyzed, totaling 1485 children aged 2-6 years old.…”

“…The accelerometer of ActiGraph mark GT1M was used in a study as the single instrument [3], and in two other studies combined with the use of pedometers Yamax SW-200 [10] and direct observation [14,15]. The cutoffs of Sirard et al [16] and 15 second epoch were used in three studies with accelerometers.…”

“…Of the seven studies included in the review, three used accelerometer [10,3,14] as a measure of physical activity instrument, and in two used pedometer and direct observation together [10,14]. Other studies used direct observation as a tool both for evaluation of physical activity of children and for the environment [9,5,13,15].…”

“…Thus, the chances of these recommendations for preschool children would be rare, even extrapolating for an all-day [3]. An aggravating factor is that parents think that children are highly active in preschool, and so offer fewer opportunities for active behavior in other environments, reducing the level of physical activity of children over day [5].…”

“…Mean MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity) in preschool children is about 16 minutes per day. It seems that it takes at least twice that amount to the positive effects above bone mineralization [3].…”