Background: Understanding the factors that influence physical activity can aid in the design of more effective interventions to promote physical activity and reduce obesity in children. While a plethora of data exists for preschoolers, data on toddlers are limited. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to predict ...
Background: The pediatric obesity epidemic has intensified the awareness of decreased physical activity and increased sedentary behavior as a major pubic health concern. While the research clearly shows ethnic disparities in obesity risk, very few have examined ethnic differences in physical activity. Most of these studies conducted were in ...
Purpose: Physical education (PE), exergaming, recess, lunch recess, and after-school segment are important avenues that may contribute to children's physical activity (PA) time each day. However, the contributions of the school-based and after-school segments to children’s daily PA levels remain unclear. Therefore, this study was designed to quantify the ...
Purpose: To compare the effect of traditional (stable) and non-traditional (dynamic) school furniture, designed to allow increased low amplitude movement while remaining in a seated position, on children’s physical activity (PA), energy expenditure, information retention, and math skills Methods: Participants were 12 students (8.3 yrs, 58% boys) in grades 1 - 6. Children participated ...
Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication skills and restrictive interests. ASD may also include delayed or impaired motor development. These social, behavioral, and perhaps motor impairments may interfere with a variety of physical activity (PA) opportunities, and therefore, put them into risk ...
Background: Previous research has shown that children are not getting the recommended amount of physical activity (PA) at school. This may be due to a lack of motivation, not having the opportunity, or not enjoying the activities available. Improving the PA levels during school can help reverse the trend of ...
Purpose: Objectively measuring physical activity in children is often impractical; thus self-report methods are frequently used but may not be valid for determination of physical activity intensity. This study examined the accuracy and validity of the Block Kids Physical Activity Screener (PAS) for estimating moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) ...
Background: The physical activity guidelines for Americans call for children and adolescents to participate in 60 minutes of MVPA daily. For most children, especially those with low socioeconomic status (SES), the school environment has been identified as the best suited to provide MVPA opportunities. Purpose: To examine the time spent ...
Background: Children’s physical activity is often intermittent and sporadic. Shorter accelerometer epochs (e.g., 5 vs. 60 s) amplify children’s time spent at higher activity count-defined intensities; however, it remains unknown how accelerometer-determined estimates of time spent and steps accumulated within incremental cadence (steps/min) bands may be infl...
Background: Physical activity (PA) has long been associated with reduced all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. More recently, time spent in sedentary behaviours has emerged as an independent risk factor for all-cause and CVD mortality. It is not well known if meeting PA guidelines reduces the amount of time spent ...