The study sample consisted of 438 adults mean age 49.8 years. Pedometer use was more likely in older participants and in those who were aware of the “10,000 Steps” campaign. Increasing step counts was more likely among those with higher education, baseline step counts below 10,000 steps/day and those who used a pedometer. Pedometer use only partly mediated the intervention effect on step counts.
Archive for category Physical Activity
Seventeen focus groups were conducted with 113, 10–11 year old children, from 11 primary schools in Bristol, UK. Enjoyment was the most important factor in maintaining activity participation with participating in activity with friends a key factor influencing enjoyment. Physical activity was perceived as a positive attribute and linked to social status among boys. Among girls the association between physical activity ability and social status was more complex, appearing to differ by the norms of the group to which participants belonged. Some participants reported that low activity ability could be perceived as desirable in some social groups. Participants reported that friends provide support to initiate physical activity via co-participation (i.e. engaging in activity together).
Finish researchers examined the current health promotion orientation of youth sports clubs. 97 youth sports clubs participated, and 273 sports club officials and 240 coaches answered questionnaires. An health promoting sports club index was created. The questionaires proved valid and reliable and can therefore be recommended for international use. There is a lot of need for development of health promotion policies and practices.
Parental concerns about children’s inactivity are not associated with a supportive home environment
Jan 27
A sample of 615 parents of 5-6-year-old children and 947 parents of 10-12-year-old children completed a questionnaire in Australia. Just over 50% of parents reported they were concerned their child was not getting enough activity. These findings suggest that parents who are concerned about their child’s physical activity levels provided a less supportive environment for physical activity than parents who are not concerned. The challenge for public health will be to harness parental concerns and translate them into action.
This article compares child reports of their physical and sedentary activities with those of their parents. Agreement between the 3958 pairs of parent and child reports was low to fair. Relative to normal weight children, those who were overweight or obese reported more participation in organized and leisure sports and less time watching television than what their parents perceived. Based on these findings, parent reports seem to provide a more accurate assessment of activity levels of children younger than 12.
This study aimed to examine children’s access to places in their neighborhood for active free play and how these vary by age, sex and socioeconomic status (SES). One-third (32%) of children reported an independent mobility range of <100 m from home. In conclusion, for some children opportunities to engage in active free play in the local neighborhood may be limited due to lack of parks in close proximity to home and restricted independent mobility. It is important to collaborate with local governments, urban planners and community groups to improve access to neighborhood parks and to promote a sense of neighborhood safety. Read more
Mothers of 174 children aged 2 to 12, completed a questionnaire and more. A greater percentage of parents with younger children rated their child as ‘œjust as’ or ‘œa little more’ active than their peers as compared to the percentage of parents with older children. Additionally, parents reported that the older children watched significantly more hours of TV on weekend days than the younger children. Taken together, these findings suggest that parent reporting of behaviors commonly believed to promote childhood obesity increases with older children.
152 boys and 192 girls aged 10-12 years were folllowed for three years. Sibling physical activity and environmental stimuli for sedentary behaviours and physical activity within the home may be important targets for prevention of weight gain during the transition from childhood to adolescence.
This study was consucted in California with the aim to determine whether respondents share researchers’ understandings of concepts and questions frequently used in the assessment of usual PA behavior. Cognitive interviews revealed significant gaps between respondents’ interpretations of some PA questions and researchers’ assumptions about what those questions were intended to measure. Some sources of measurement error in self-reported PA may be minimized by additional research that focuses on the cognitive processes required to respond to PA questionnaires.
Researchers from Loyola University Health System and other centers compared African American women in metropolitan Chicago with women in rural Nigeria. On average, the Chicago women weighed 184 pounds and the Nigerian women weighed 127 pounds. Researchers had expected to find that the slimmer Nigerian women would be more physically active. To their surprise, they found no significant difference between the two groups in the amount of calories burned during physical activity.