Context-Specific Outdoor Time and Physical Activity among School-Children Across Gender and Age: Using Accelerometers and GPS to Advance Methods

Abstract

Introduction: Being outdoors has a positive influence on health among children. Evidence in this area is limited and many studies have used self-reported measures. Objective context-specific assessment of physical activity patterns and correlates, such as outdoor time, may progress this field.Aims: To employ novel objective measures to assess age and gender differences in context-specific outdoor weekday behavior patterns among school-children [outdoor time and outdoor moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA)] and to investigate associations between context-specific outdoor time and MVPA.Methods: A total of 170 children had at least one weekday of 9 h combined accelerometer and global positioning system data and were included in the analyses. The data were processed using the personal activity and location measurement system (PALMS) and a purpose-built PostgreSQL database resulting in context-specific measures for outdoor time, outdoor MVPA, and overall daily MVPA. In addition, 4 domains (leisure, school, transport, and home) and 11 subdomains (e.g., urban green space and sports facilities) were created and assessed. Multilevel analyses provided results on age and gender differences and the association between outdoor time and MVPA.Results: Girls compared to boys had fewer outdoor minutes (p < 0.05), spent a smaller proportion of their overall daily time outdoors (p < 0.05), had fewer outdoor MVPA minutes during the day (p < 0.001) and in 11 contexts. Children compared to adolescents had more outdoor minutes (p < 0.05). During school and within recess, children compared to adolescents had more outdoor MVPA (p < 0.001) and outdoor time (p < 0.001). A 1-h increase in outdoor time was associated with 9.9 more minutes of MVPA (p < 0.001).Conclusion: A new methodology to assess the context-specific outdoor time and physical activity patterns has been developed and can be expanded to other populations. Different context-specific patterns were found for gender and age, suggesting different strategies may be needed to promote physical activity.

Schoolyard Characteristics, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behavior: Combining GPS and Accelerometry

“…On average, children spent almost 9 minutes (18%) of their MVPA at schoolyards, and 20 minutes (37%) of their SB. The time spent in MVPA at the schoolyard is comparable with the findings of previous research combining accelerometer data and GPS data . The percentage of time spent in SB at schoolyards was slightly lower than in other studies .…”

“…All children spend a substantial part of their time at school, making the school environment highly important for children's PA levels . The school environment can contribute to daily moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and decrease SB by providing a supportive physical and social environment, including supportive environments for active school transport, appropriate and sufficient physical education lessons, and supportive environments for PA during recess …”

When cities move children: Development of a new methodology to assess context-specific physical activity behaviour among children and adolescents using accelerometers and GPS

“…The details of the participant recruitment have been reported elsewhere (Klinker et al, 2014a). The Danish Ethical Regional Committee reviewed the study protocol and concluded that formal ethics approval was not required.…”

“…Only baseline results from the WCMC study pertaining to the use of and time spent in domains and subdomains are presented in this paper. The context-specific moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) patterns, outdoor time and outdoor MVPA patterns have been reported elsewhere as have parts of the methodology (Klinker et al, 2014a(Klinker et al, , 2014b.…”

Use of global positioning system for physical activity research in youth: ESPAÇOS Adolescentes, Brazil

“…To date, the limited available evidence comes from developed countries located in North America (Almanza et al, 2012; Dunton et al, 2014; Ellis et al, 2014; Kerr et al, 2012; Lee and Li, 2014), Europe (Audrey et al, 2014; Chaix et al, 2013; Cooper et al, 2010a, 2010b; Klinker et al, 2014a; Klinker et al, 2014b; Madsen et al, 2014; Wheeler et al, 2010) and Oceania (Duncan et al, 2010, 2009; Quigg et al, 2010). …”