Measurement of physical activity and sedentary behavior in adolescents by accelerometer: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

<jats:p>The objective of this study was to analyze the level of physical activity and sedentary behavior (SB) in students from Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is a cross-sectional study with 153 participants of both sexes and had to be between 10 and 12 old. We carried out measurements of socioeconomic and anthropometric variables. Also, physical activity and sedentary behavior were measured using an accelerometer (MiniMitter, Actiheart®). The accelerometer was fixed on the chest and the participants should remain with it for three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). We categorized the data as SB - &lt; 1.6 METs (&lt; 0.39 kcal.kg-1.15min-1); light physical activity - 1.6 to 2.9 METs (0.42 to 0.76 kcal.kg-1.15min-1). In the study, both sexes showed a low time of moderate and vigorous (~ 0.85 hours/day) activities. Higher times were recorded for light activity (~ 2.6 hours/day) and SB (~ 12.5 hours/day) in both sexes. Also, boys spent greater time on a vigorous physical activity and lower time of SB in the three evaluated days (~ 1.3 hours/day boys vs ~ 0.4 hours/day girls) (p = 0.001; np2 = 0.42). However, the physical activity behavior was similar during weekdays and weekends (p = 0.14; np2 = 0.078). We conclude that boys are more engaged than girls in physical activities in public schools of Minas Gerais, Brazil. However, SB is similar between them.</jats:p>

Approaches and methods to assess sedentary behavior in Brazil: a systematic review

“…In addition, in Brazil, the rate of attendance of children and adolescents at school, from 7 to 14 years old, is approximately 96% 21 , which facilitates the access of researchers to students. The majority of Brazilian studies (approximately 86%) have used subjective measures to evaluate SB through self-reported questionnaires or interviews, which may compromise the quality of the measure, as these methods present less accuracy and poor correlation with device-derived measures 22 . Chastin et al 15 compared several subjective instruments of SB measurement with a device-derived measurement instrument and found that the first present great bias, low precision, and low correlation with the second, besides not presenting standardization between the domains and time reference that they aim to measure.…”

Correlation Between the Cardiorespiratory Fitness Level and Habitual Physical Activity in Brazilian Air Force Recruits

“…However, due to technological advances (smartphones, social networks, electric vehicles, etc. ), urban violence, and other barriers, there is a reduction in its levels among children, young people, and adults, and a consequent reduction in cardiorespiratory fitness levels (Butcher et al, 2008;Tenório et al, 2010;Lima-Junior et al, 2019;Silva et al, 2020). It should be noted that the data regarding the level of habitual physical activity among the military personnel of the AFs are not very precise, with some studies showing that their levels may be between 60 and 90% of active/very active individuals, depending on the instrument used (Martignago et al, 2016;Rocha et al, 2017).…”