Abstract
BackgroundKnowledge on domain-specific physical activity (PA) has the potential to advance public health interventions and inform new policies promoting children’s PA. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess domains (leisure, school, transport, home) and subdomains (e.g., recess, playgrounds, and urban green space) for week day moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) using objective measures and investigate gender and age differences.MethodsParticipants included 367 Danish children and adolescents (11–16 years, 52% girls) with combined accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data (mean 2.5 days, 12.7 hrs/day). The Personal Activity and Location Measurement System and a purpose-built database assessed data in 15-second epochs to determine PA and assign epochs to 4 domains and 11 subdomains. Frequencies and proportions of time spent in MVPA were determined and differences assessed using multi-level modeling.ResultsMore than 90% of MVPA was objectively assigned to domains/subdomains. Boys accumulated more MVPA overall, in leisure, school and transport (all p < 0.05). Children compared with adolescents accumulated more MVPA, primarily through more school MVPA (p < 0.05). Boys spent a large proportion of time accumulating MVPA in playgrounds, active transport, Physical Education, sports facilities, urban green space and school grounds. Girls spent a significant proportion of time accumulating MVPA in active transport and playgrounds. No gender or age differences were found in the home domain.ConclusionsLarge variations were found in PA frequency and intensity across domains/subdomains. Significant gender differences were found, with girls being less active in almost all domains and subdomains. Objectively measured patterns of PA across domains/subdomains can be used to better tailor PA interventions and inform future policies for promoting child PA.
Highlights
Knowledge on domain-specific physical activity (PA) has the potential to advance public health interventions and inform new policies promoting children’s PA
Participants had a mean of 2.5 valid week days and a median of 12.7 (IQR 11.6-13.5) hours of daily combined accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data, with girls accumulating more overall time compared with boys (p = 0.009)
The current study found that active transport overall accounts for almost 20% of all moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) and the average proportion of time spent in MVPA in active transport is between 3035%
Summary
Knowledge on domain-specific physical activity (PA) has the potential to advance public health interventions and inform new policies promoting children’s PA. A handful of studies have used objective measures to describe the spatial activity pattern among children and adolescents [10,12,14], but to date none have used a theoretical domain focused approach It is unclear if particular subdomains within each domain are more or less important targets for PA intervention. Recess and Physical Education (PE) are examples of organizational opportunities that can be used to promote PA during school hours [15] Locations such as playgrounds [16,17], urban green space [9,11] or facilities such as sports facilities [18] are potential subdomains for PA during leisure time. To date it appears that no studies have investigated both the amount of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) and the proportion of time spent in MVPA [19] in domains and subdomains
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