"Fewer than one in four inner city school children accumulated the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23059861

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Oct 10. [Epub ahead of print]

Physical Activity Patterns of Inner-City Elementary School Children.

Trost SG, McCoy TA, Vander Veur SS, Mallya G, Duffy ML, Foster GD.

Source

1School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia 2Center for Obesity Research and Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 3Department of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

To objectively measure the physical activity (PA) characteristics of a racially and ethnically diverse sample of inner-city elementary school children; and examine the influence of gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, and weight status on PA.

METHODS:

470 students in grades 4-6 from six inner-city schools in Philadelphia wore an ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer for up to 7 days. The resultant data were uploaded to a customized Visual Basic EXCEL macro for determination of time spent in sedentary (SED), light (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA).

RESULTS:

On average, students accumulated 48 minutes of MVPA daily. Expressed as a percentage of monitoring time, students were sedentary for 63% of the time, in LPA 31% of the time, and MVPA 6% of the time. Across all race/ethnicity and grade level groups, boys exhibited significantly higher levels of MVPA than girls; 5th grade boys exhibited significantly lower MVPA levels than 4 and 6 grade boys, and 6 grade girls exhibited significantly lower MVPA levels than 4 and 5 grade girls. Hispanic children exhibited lower levels of MVPA than children from other racial/ethnic groups; and overweight and obese children exhibited significantly lower MVPA levels than children in the healthy weight range. Across the entire sample, only 24.3% met the current public health guidelines for physical activity. Physical inactivity was significantly greater among females, Hispanics, and overweight and obese students.

CONCLUSIONS:

Fewer than one in four inner city school children accumulated the recommended 60 minutes of MVPA daily. These findings highlight the need for effective and sustainable programs to promote PA in inner city youth.