Expected Values for Pedometer-Determined Physical Activity in Youth

Abstract

This review assembles pedometry literature focused on youth, with particular attention to expected values for habitual, school day, physical education class, recess, lunch break, out-of-school, weekend, and vacation activity. From 31 studies published since 1999, we constructed a youth habitual activity step-curve that indicates: (a) from ages 6 to 18 years, boys typically take more steps per day than girls; (b) for both sexes the youngest age groups appear to take fewer steps per day than those immediately older; and (c) from a young age, boys decline more in steps per day to become more consistent with girls at older ages. Additional studies revealed that boys take approximately 42-49% of daily steps during the school day; girls take 41-47%. Steps taken during physical education class contribute to total steps per day by 8.7-23.7% in boys and 11.4-17.2% in girls. Recess represents 8-11% and lunch break represents 15-16% of total steps per day. After-school activity contributes approximately 47-56% of total steps per day for boys and 47-59% for girls. Weekdays range from approximately 12,000 to 16,000 steps per day in boys and 10,000 to 14,000 steps perday in girls. The corresponding values for weekend days are 12,000-13,000 steps per day in boys and 10,000-12,000 steps per day in girls.

Predictors of meeting physical activity and fruit and vegetable recommendations in 9–11-year-old children

“…We should also consider promoting an increase of 3000 steps per day (Tudor-Locke et al, 2011b) as an appropriate, research-based goal to help reduce the risk of child overweight/obesity, regardless of whether or not a child reaches their sex-specific daily step count recommendation for achieving 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Similar to other research (Brusseau et al, 2011;Tudor-Locke et al, 2009), our study found a significant difference between the average step counts for boys and girls (p < 0.001), with boys achieving an average of 2136 more steps per day than girls. However, there were no significant differences between pedometer step counts on weekdays versus weekend days (p = 0.755).…”

“…However, there were no significant differences between pedometer step counts on weekdays versus weekend days (p = 0.755). This contrasts with studies suggesting that children achieve more steps during the week than on the weekend (Brusseau et al, 2011;Tudor-Locke et al, 2009). Our findings could be due to the relatively high income status of the majority of our population, as children from higher income families are more likely to have access to pay-based physical activity opportunities throughout the week and weekend, which is associated with increased physical activity (Sallis et al, 1999(Sallis et al, , 2000.…”

“…Our findings could be due to the relatively high income status of the majority of our population, as children from higher income families are more likely to have access to pay-based physical activity opportunities throughout the week and weekend, which is associated with increased physical activity (Sallis et al, 1999(Sallis et al, , 2000. Despite our somewhat unusual findings, there are some studies that have found no significant difference between weekday and weekend step counts (Tudor-Locke et al, 2009 ), implying that additional research should be conducted in order to further delineate the relationship between weekday and weekend physical activity levels in children.…”

A Systematic Literature Review with Meta-Analyses of Within- and Between-Day Differences in Objectively Measured Physical Activity in School-Aged Children

“…While many studies descriptively report physical activity for specific time segments of the day and week, few conduct formal statistical tests of differences in activity between time segments. Previous reviews have compared time-segment-specific physical activity across studies or have limited comparisons of weekdays versus weekends [16–19]. Interventions often target particular times of the day, such as school [13, 20], afterschool [12, 21] or recess [22].…”

Response to “A Step in the Right Direction

“…The focus of his commentary is "Expected Values for PedometerDetermined Physical Activity in Youth"(Tudor-Locke, McClain, Hart, Sisson, & Washington, 2009). As we indicated in that article, expected values are normative or benchmark values necessary for interpretation and comparison purposes; their use does…”