Independent mobility, perceptions of the built environment and children's participation in play, active travel and structured exercise and sport: the PEACH Project

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Independent mobility (IM) and perceptions of the built environment may relate differentially to children's participation in various physical activity contexts. This cross-sectional study investigated whether independent mobility and perceptions of the built environment in boys and girls were related to physical activity in three different contexts (outdoor play, structured exercise/sport, active commuting).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirteen hundred and seven 10-11 year old boys and girls from 23 schools in a large UK city completed a computerised questionnaire. Independent variables in logistic regression analyses were weekly self-reported frequency of participation in outdoor play, structured exercise/sport and mode of travel home from school. Dependent variables were perceptions of the environment (aesthetics, nuisance, safety, social norm, constraint, play space, accessibility), local and area independent mobility and linear distance from home to school. Analyses were adjusted for body mass index, minutes of daylight after school, level of neighbourhood deprivation and pubertal status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For boys, local independent mobility (Local-IM) was related to an increased likelihood of everyday participation in play (OR 1.58: 95% CI 1.19-2.10), structured exercise/sport (OR 1.42: 1.06-1.89) and active commuting (OR 1.40: 1.07-1.87) but was only related to active commuting for girls (OR1.49: 1.07-2.07). Boys and girls were more likely to report playing out every day if they had higher scores for Social Norm (Boys: OR 1.63 (1.12-2.37); Girls: OR 1.53 (1.01-2.31)) and, for girls only, more positive perceptions of traffic safety (OR 1.63: 1.14-2.34). Easy access to a range of destinations was the dominant predictor for taking part in structured exercise/sport everyday (Boys: OR 1.62 (1.01-2.66); Girls: OR 1.65 (1.07-2.53)). Shorter distance from home to school (OR 0.99: 0.98-0.99) and, for boys only, greater perceived accessibility (OR 1.87: 1.04-3.36) were significantly related to active commuting to school.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Perceptions of the physical environment relate differently to different physical activity contexts and by gender. The only consistent correlate for outdoor play, structured ex/sport and active commuting was higher independent mobility to visit local destinations (Local-IM) for boys. Considering both the physical activity context and its independent correlates should improve the specificity of physical activity interventions in children.</p

The tracking of active travel and its relationship with body composition in UK adolescents

AbstractBackgroundTo examine the tracking of active travel through adolescence, and its association with body mass index (BMI) and fat mass at age 17 in a UK cohort.MethodsWe analysed data collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The analyses include all participants with self-reported travel mode to school at ages 12, 14 and 16 years, and measured height, weight and body composition at age 17 (n=2,026). Tracking coefficients were calculated for individual travel behaviours (including walking and cycling) through adolescence using Generalised Estimating Equations. Linear regression analyses examined associations between travel pattern (consistently passive, consistently active, active at two time points or active at one time point), BMI, and DXA-measured fat mass (expressed as internally derived standard deviation scores) at 17 years. Analyses were adjusted for height (where appropriate), sex, age, parental social class, and maternal education with interaction terms to assess sex differences.ResultsThere was substantial tracking in active travel through adolescence, with 38.5% of males and 32.3% of females consistently walking or cycling to school. In males, a consistently or predominantly active travel pattern was associated with a lower BMI SD score at age 17 (consistently active: adjusted β=−0.23; 95% CI −0.40, −0.06; active at two time points: adjusted β−0.30; 95% CI −0.50, −0.10) compared to those with a consistently passive pattern. No associations were seen in females.ConclusionsMaintenance of active travel behaviours throughout adolescence may help to protect against the development of excess BMI in males. In addition to encouraging the adoption of active travel to school, public health messages should aim to prevent drop out from active travel to promote good health in youth

Independent mobility in relation to weekday and weekend physical activity in children aged 10–11 years: The PEACH Project

© 2009 Page et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.BACKGROUND Children's independent mobility has fallen in recent years and may in part explain reported declines in physical activity in young people. This cross-sectional study investigated whether independent mobility in boys and girls was related to objectively measured physical activity. METHODS Thirteen hundred and seven 10–11 year old boys and girls from 23 schools in a large UK city took part. Measures included objectively recorded physical activity (accelerometer (Actigraph GT1M)), height (m) and weight (kg), a newly developed scale for local (Local-IM) and area independent mobility (Area-IM), minutes of daylight after school, level of neighbourhood deprivation and pubertal status. RESULTS Boys had greater Local-IM, Area-IM and physical activity (average weekday and weekend counts per minute) compared to girls. In linear regression analyses (adjusting for minutes of daylight after school, neighbourhood deprivation, pubertal status and body mass index) higher scores for Local-IM and Area-IM were significantly (p < 0.01) related to higher levels of physical activity on weekdays for boys and girls. For weekend physical activity, only Local-IM in girls remained significant (p < 0.05) in the model. CONCLUSION Independent mobility appears to be an important independent correlate of weekday physical activity for both boys and girls

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour typologies of 10-11 year olds

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Targeted interventions may be more effective at increasing children's physical activity. The aim of this study was to identify clusters of children based on physical activity and sedentary patterns across the week.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were 761, 10-11 year old children. Participant's self-reported time spent in eight physical activity and sedentary contexts and wore an accelerometer. Cluster analysis was conducted on the time spent in the self-reported physical activity and sedentary contexts. Mean minutes of accelerometer derived of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time were derived for the entire week, weekdays only, weekend days and four different time periods across each type (weekend or weekday) of days. Differences in the physical activity patterns of the groups derived from the cluster analysis were assessed for overall physical activity as well as for the four time periods on weekdays and weekend days.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three clusters emerged: 1) High active/Low sedentary; 2) Low active/Moderate sedentary; and 3) High Active/High sedentary. Patterns of activity differed across the week for each group and the High Active/High sedentary obtained the most minutes of MVPA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patterns of physical activity and sedentary time differed across the week for each cluster. Interventions could be targeted to the key periods when each group is inactive.</p

Development of scales to assess children's perceptions of friend and parental influences on physical activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many children do not meet physical activity guidelines. Parents and friends are likely to influence children's physical activity but there is a shortage of measures that are able to capture these influences.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A new questionnaire with the following three scales was developed: 1) <it>Parental influence on physical activity</it>; 2) <it>Motives for activity with friends </it>scale; and 3) <it>Physical activity and sedentary group normative values</it>. Content for each scale was informed by qualitative work. One hundred and seventy three, 10-11 year old children completed the new questionnaire twice, one week apart. Participants also wore an accelerometer for 5 days and mean minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, light physical activity and sedentary time per day were obtained. Test-retest reliability of the items was calculated and Principal Component analysis of the scales performed and sub-scales produced. Alphas were calculated for main scales and sub-scales. Correlations were calculated among sub-scales. Correlations between each sub-scale and accelerometer physical activity variables were calculated for all participants and stratified by sex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Parental influence scale yielded four factors which accounted for 67.5% of the variance in the items and had good (α > 0.7) internal consistency. The Motives for physical activity scale yielded four factors that accounted for 66.1% and had good internal consistency. The Physical activity norms scale yielded 4 factors that accounted for 67.4% of the variance, with good internal consistency for the sub-scales and alpha of .642 for the overall scale. Associations between the sub-scales and physical activity differed by sex. Although only 6 of the 11 sub-scales were significantly correlated with physical activity there were a number of associations that were positively correlated >0.15 indicating that these factors may contribute to the explanation of children's physical activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Three scales that assess how parents, friends and group normative values may be associated with children's physical activity have been shown to be reliable and internally consistent. Examination of the extent to which these new scales improve our understanding of children's physical activity in datasets with a range of participant and family characteristics is needed.</p

Accelerometer-measured sedentary time and cardiometabolic biomarkers:A systematic review

AbstractObjectiveWe conducted a systematic review to investigate the cross-sectional and prospective associations of accelerometer-measured total sedentary time and breaks in sedentary time with individual cardiometabolic biomarkers in adults ≥18years of age.MethodsOvid Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Due to inconsistencies in the measurement and analysis of sedentary time, data was synthesised and presented narratively rather than as a meta-analysis.ResultsTwenty-nine studies were included in the review; twenty-eight reported on total sedentary time and six on breaks in sedentary time. There was consistent evidence from cross-sectional data of an unfavourable association between total sedentary time and insulin sensitivity. There was also some evidence that total sedentary time was unfavourably associated with fasting insulin, insulin resistance and triglycerides. Furthermore, there was some evidence from cross-sectional data of a favourable association between breaks in sedentary time and triglycerides.ConclusionTotal sedentary time was consistently shown to be associated with poorer insulin sensitivity, even after adjusting for time spent in physical activity. This finding supports the proposed association between sedentary time and the development of Type 2 diabetes and reinforces the need to identify interventions to reduce time spent sedentary

Patterns of GPS measured time outdoors after school and objective physical activity in English children: the PEACH project

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Observational studies have shown a positive association between time outdoors and physical activity in children. Time outdoors may be a feasible intervention target to increase the physical activity of youth, but methods are required to accurately measure time spent outdoors in a range of locations and over a sustained period. The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides precise location data and can be used to identify when an individual is outdoors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether GPS data recorded outdoors were associated with objectively measured physical activity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were 1010 children (11.0 ± 0.4 years) recruited from 23 urban primary schools in South West England, measured between September 2006 and July 2008. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry (Actigraph GT1M) and children wore a GPS receiver (Garmin Foretrex 201) after school on four weekdays to record time outdoors. Accelerometer and GPS data were recorded at 10 second epochs and were combined to describe patterns of physical activity when both a GPS and accelerometer record were present (outdoors) and when there was accelerometer data only (indoors). ANOVA was used to investigate gender and seasonal differences in the patterns of outdoor and indoor physical activity, and linear regression was used to examine the cross-sectional associations between GPS-measured time outdoors and physical activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>GPS-measured time outdoors was a significant independent predictor of children's physical activity after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Physical activity was more than 2.5 fold higher outdoors than indoors (1345.8 ± 907.3 vs 508.9 ± 282.9 counts per minute; F = 783.2, p < .001). Overall, children recorded 41.7 ± 46.1 minutes outdoors between 3.30 pm and 8.30 pm, with more time spent outdoors in the summer months (p < .001). There was no gender difference in time spent outdoors. Physical activity outdoors was higher in the summer than the winter (p < .001), whilst there was no seasonal variation in physical activity indoors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Duration of GPS recording is positively associated with objectively measured physical activity and is sensitive to seasonal differences. Minute by minute patterning of GPS and physical activity data is feasible and may be a useful tool to investigate environmental influences on children's physical activity and to identify opportunities for intervention.</p