DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CZECH BOYS AND GIRLS IN IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, SLEEP TIME, AND SCREEN TIME

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) belongs among the basic life activities which are necessary for favourable human development [10]. At present, focus on recommendations to fulfil only the PA level (such as MVPA - moderate to vigorous physical activity) is gradually moving towards a so-called integrated movement model. This model includes recommendations for the all-day regimen, bearing in mind the behaviour associated not only with physical activity, but also with the recommended sleep time and screen time [11]. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the presented study was to find out and compare the levels of physical activity between boys and girls in the age range of 9 to 18 years, with a focus on recommendations to fulfil physical activity, sleep time, and screen time during the whole week, school, and weekend days. METHOD: Our research was carried out by means of ActiGraph accelerometers, PA case reports, and questionnaires for parents and children. These three methods were used to monitor MVPA, sleep time, and screen time, and we compared the results of boys and girls during the whole week, school, and weekend days. Within the framework of our research, we tested 191 primary and secondary school pupils in the age range of 9 to 18 years. For the purposes of data processing, the respondents were divided by gender to 89 boys and 102 girls. RESULTS: During the whole week and when comparing weekend and school days, there was no statistically significant difference between boys and girls in sleep time, but these recommendations were met by a larger percentage of boys during the whole week (34.8%), during school days (32.6%), and weekend days (41.6%) too. Recommendations on screen time spending are fulfilled by a larger percentage of girls during the whole week (46.1%), and also when considering school (58.8%) and weekend (38.2%) days, while a statistically significant difference in all indicators was found between boys and girls. Our results also showed that the difference between boys and girls in implementing the recommendations for MVPA during the whole week (p = 0.034) and school days (p = 0.005) is statistically significant in favour of boys, but this difference does not show statistical significance on weekends (p = 0.14). The percentage difference in implementing these recommendations among boys and girls is 10.1%, again in favour of boys. CONCLUSION: In the recommendations regarding sleep time and screen time, we can see that the number of pupils who meet the recommendations is less than half of all probands, except the recommendations regarding the screen time of girls during school days, which is an alarming result. Our next objective was to find out the ways of better motivation of individual persons in the examined age range to physical activities, increase in the sleep time, reduce in the screen time by watching electronic devices.