The translation of preschoolers’ physical activity guidelines into a daily step count target

Abstract

This study aimed at translating the physical activity (PA) guideline (180 min of total PA per day) into a step count target in preschoolers. 535 Flemish preschoolers (mean age: 4.41 ± 0.58) wore an ActiGraph accelerometer (GT1M, GT3X and GT3X+) – with activated step count function – for four consecutive days. The step count target was calculated from the accelerometer output using a regression equation, applying four different cut-points for light-to-vigorous PA: Pate, Evenson, Reilly, and Van Cauwenberghe. The present analysis showed that 180 min of total PA per day is equivalent to the following step count targets: 5,274 steps/day using the Pate cut-point, 4,653 steps/day using the Evenson cut-point, 11,379 steps/day using the Reilly cut-point and 13,326 steps/day using the Van Cauwenberghe cut-point. Future studies should focus on achieving consensus on which cut-points to use in preschoolers before a definite step count target in preschoolers can be proposed. Until then, we propose to use a provisional step count target of 11,500 steps/day as this step count target is attainable, realistic and helpful in promoting preschoolers’ PA.