How Children Move: Activity Pattern Characteristics in Lean and Obese Chinese Children

Alison M Mcmanus,Eva Y W Chu,Yong Hu,Clare C W Yu

doi:10.1155/2011/679328

Abstract

Physical activity and sedentary behavior are central components of lifetime weight control; however, our understanding of dimensions of these behaviors in childhood is limited. This study investigated free-living activity pattern characteristics and the individual variability of these characteristics in 84 lean and obese Chinese children (7–9 y) during the school day and over the weekend. Activity pattern characteristics were established from triaxial accelerometry (StayHealthy RT3). Results indicated that children's free-living activity is characterized by many short-duration, low-intensity bouts of movement. Obese children take longer rest intervals between bouts and engage in fewer activity bouts both at school and at home. Intraindividual variability in activity patterns was low during school days but high for the rest intervals between bouts and number of activity bouts per day at the weekend. Finding ways to reduce the rest time between bouts of movement and increase the number of movement bouts a child experiences each day is an important next step.

Highlights

Children do not voluntarily engage in sustained periods of constant intensity physical activity [1]
Participants were overfed for a period of 8 weeks resulting in weight gain and a decrease in the distance walked per day in the obese, suggestive of a mechanistic link between obesity, weight control, and spontaneous physical activity
The activity pattern characteristics that we report for the school day are remarkably similar to the previous observation studies [2, 3] in terms of the number of bouts per hour, the duration of the rest interval between bouts, and the intensity of bouts

Summary

Introduction

Children do not voluntarily engage in sustained periods of constant intensity physical activity [1]. Early evidence characterizing spontaneous physical activity in children has shown that children take frequent (83 to 89 bouts per hour), short-duration (mean duration of 20 to 21 s) bouts of movement of variable but mostly low intensity, interspersed by comparatively long intervals of nonactive time [2, 3]. This pattern of movement was termed the “tempo” of physical activity, that is, the frequency with which an activity event occurs and the intervals between these [2]. Participants were overfed for a period of 8 weeks resulting in weight gain and a decrease in the distance walked per day in the obese, suggestive of a mechanistic link between obesity, weight control, and spontaneous physical activity

Methods

Results

Conclusion