Abstract
The built environment in which young people live has a significant influence on their physical activity (PA). However, little is known regarding how youth from suburban and rural settings utilise their surrounding environments to participate in free-living PA. 50 adolescents aged 13–14 years old (22 rural; 28 suburban) wore an integrated GPS and heart rate device during non-school hours and completed a daily PA diary over 7 days. Descriptive statistics and analyses of variance were used to explore differences in the amount and location of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) between genders and youth from different geographical settings. Suburban youth participated in significantly (p = 0.004) more daily PA (52.14 minutes MVPA) and were more extensive in their utilisation of their surroundings, compared to rural youth (26.61 minutes MVPA). Suburban youth visited more public recreational facilities and spent significantly more time outdoors and on local streets (109.71 minutes and 44.62 minutes, respectively) compared to rural youth (55.98 minutes and 17.15 minutes, respectively) during weekdays. Rural youth on average spent significantly more time within the home (350.69 minutes) during weekends compared to suburban youth (214.82 minutes). Rural females were the least active group of adolescents, participating in the least amount of daily PA (20.14 minutes MVPA) and spending the least amount of time outdoors (31.37 minutes) during weekdays. Time spent outdoors was positively associated with PA. The findings highlight the disparity in PA levels and the utilisation of the surrounding built environment between youth from two different geographical settings and possible environmental causes are discussed. The study supports the use of GPS (combined with other methods) in investigating geographical differences in young people’s PA and movement patterns. This method provides a wealth of information that may assist future policies and interventions in identifying environmental characteristics that promote PA in youth from different geographical settings.
Highlights
The advantages of physical activity (PA) to people of all ages are widely publicised and present psychological, sociological and physiological benefits to those who regularly engage in PA [1,2,3]
Of the 50 adolescents that agreed to participate in the study, three participants from the rural school and three from the suburban schools did not provide usable data, resulting in 88% of participants providing data which contributed to the outcome of the study
From the total number of participants who provided analysed data, the overall average number of days that participants wore the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) monitor was 4.23 (±1.72) days per week, whilst the average time they wore the device per day was 6.46 (±1.50) hours
Summary
The advantages of physical activity (PA) to people of all ages are widely publicised and present psychological, sociological and physiological benefits to those who regularly engage in PA [1,2,3]. PA provides the backbone of total energy expenditure and it is widely acknowledged that in order for people to attain a healthy weight status they must ensure that they achieve a balance between energy intake and energy output [5,6]. In order to promote PA in youth it is important that young people are provided with the opportunities to be active within their surrounding social and physical environment. Many people in today’s society live in obesogenic environments which play a key role in promoting weight gain by encouraging inactivity or poor diet (overeating or consumption of unhealthy foods) [9]. Whilst significant advances have been made in exploring the influence of the built environment (BE), researchers are still searching to clearly outline the identity and impact of specific
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