Weekday and Weekend Physical Activity Patterns in Overweight Thai Adolescents

Introduction No previous studies about the Thai adolescent’s physical activity patterns using accelerometers have been published, aiming at planning and implementing effective health intervention programs for weight management in Thailand.

Objectives To describe differences in physical activity patterns, measured by accelerometers across weekdays and weekend days, in overweight secondary-school adolescents in Thailand. Evaluate compliance with the physical activity recommendations.

Research Methods And Procedures Forty-eight overweight adolescent’s, including 20 boys (mean age of 14.9 ± 1.9, BMI: 27.3 ± 3.9) and 28 girls (mean age of 15.3 ± 1.6, BMI: 28.8 ± 5.3) wore the accelerometer (ActiGraph GT1M model) for seven consecutive days, with at least 10 hours/day evaluation, and was recorded the minutes per day in sedentary, light, moderate, and moderate to vigorous physical activities.

Results Boys are more active than girls during weekend or weekdays (P < 0.01). Adolescent boys spent their regular time (minutes) during weekdays in sedentary (989.6 ± 82.5) and light (279.6 ± 63.6) activities, with more than 60 minutes/day in MVPA (70.1 ± 33.7); on the other hand, during weekend they spent less time in MVPA [sedentary (1118.6 ± 100.9), light (269.3 ± 85.5) and MVPA (52.1 ± 27.2]. Girls spent even less time in MVPA than boys in weekdays [sedentary (1047.0 ± 91.8), light (255.4 ± 48.6), MVPA (32.4 ± 18.6)], and weekends [sedentary (1111.4 ± 112.5), light (284.0 ± 65.6) and MVPA (23.7 ± 17.4). Thai overweight boys in this study could meet, on average, current recommendations for 60 minutes a day of MVPA.

Conclusions Overweight boys, from this sample, spent on average the 60 minutes recommendations, during weekdays but not on weekend days. Girls do not achieve the recommendations either on weekends or weekdays.