Variability of Spanish adolescents’ physical activity patterns by seasonality, day of the week and demographic factors

Abstract

In this study, we examined the variability of physical activity (and inactivity) patterns in relation to gender, age, type of school, day of the week, and season of the year among a sample of Spanish adolescents aged 12Á16 years. Levels of physical activity engagement, ''who'' was active/inactive, and ''when'' they were active/inactive were addressed. A Spanish translation and modification of Cale's Four by One-Day Physical Activity Questionnaire was administered by interviewer to 323 participants to measure estimated energy expenditure. Activity was assessed for two weekdays and two weekend days on two occasions during the autumn and two occasions during the winter. In an effort to better describe adolescents' active/inactive lifestyles, energy expenditures were translated into physical activity categories (i.e. active, moderately active, inactive, and very inactive). Results revealed that mean adolescent total daily energy expenditure was 41.46 kcal ×kg (1 ×day (1 (s 07.05), which corresponded to the ''active'' category. Factorial and mixed analyses of variance showed statistically significant differences in energy expenditure by gender, season, day of the week, and type of school (PB0.001). Female adolescents spent less daily energy than their male counterparts and, consequently, they were less active overall, even though they were more moderately active than boys. Participants were more active in winter than in autumn, which was largely due to the accumulation of time engaged in more lifestyle activities than differences in strenuous exercise. Adolescents were also less active on weekdays than during weekends. An interaction effect emerged for day of the week and type of school with adolescents attending public (or state) schools presenting higher daily energy expenditures than those from private schools during weekends (P B0.01). The results suggest that girls may prefer less vigorous forms of activity. They also indicate that adolescents are investing time in physical activity when they have the freedom to participate or not (i.e. weekends), in particular those from public schools. We suggest that differences in gender, seasonality, and weekends versus weekdays, together with the choice of lifestyle activities, should be considered when designing activity promotion strategies among Spanish adolescents.

Physical Activity Levels of the Young Adults in an Economically Developing Country: The Turkish Sample

“…In addition, males participated in both moderate and vigorous activities for longer periods of time than females. These findings are in line with the earlier studies which found that boys were physically more active than girls (Katzmarzyk et al, 1999;Lasheras et al, 2001;McKenzie et al, 2000;Pahkala et al, 2007;Peiro-Velert et al, 2008), and also that males were more active than females (Grundy et al, 1999;Johnson et al, 1998;Kronenberg et al, 2000;Lowry et al, 2002;Macera et al, 2001;Moore et al, 2005;Trost et al, 2002;Utter et al, 2006). Moreover, the results of the present study revealed that males were more likely than females to play team sports such as soccer and basketball, while female participation was concentrated on individual exercise and sport activities such as walking and table-tennis.…”

The association between participation in organised physical activity and level of physical activity and inactivity in adolescent girls

“…This "high weekdays-low weekends" PA pat terns were already examined in previous studies in adults (Tudor-Locke et al, 2004), adolescents (Peiró-Velert et al, 2008;Pelclová, Ansari, & Vašíčková, 2010) and as well as in children (Duncan et al, 2008a). This study contributes to these fi ndings by recognizing that these patterns are similar in girls regardless of their frequency of participation in organised PA.…”

Decrease in weekend number of steps in adolescents

“…Differences between boys and girls have been minimally affected by this. We did not study other factors that may influence performing physical activities for example weather conditions (Duncan, Hopkins, Schofield, & Duncan, 2008;Suminksi, Poston, Market, Hyder, & Sara, 2008), season (Pieró-Veler, Devís-Devís, Beltrán-Carrillo, & Fox, 2008), and environment (Davison & Lawson, 2006;Ding, Sallis, Kerr, Lee, & Rosenberg, 2011;Nelson, Gordon-Larsen, Song, & Popkin, 2006).…”