scholarly journals Association between Family Structure and Physical Activity of Chinese Adolescents

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijuan Wang ◽  
Jing Qi

Background. This study examines the association between family structure and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of adolescents in China.Methods. The participants included 612 adolescents (317 boys and 295 girls) from Shanghai with ages ranging from 10 to 16 years. Accelerometers were used to measure the duration of MVPA of adolescents, and questionnaires on family structure were completed by the parents of these adolescents.Results. Findings suggested that family structure significantly increased the likelihood of adolescents engaging in physical activity (PA) and explained 6% of MPVA variance. Adolescents living in single-parent households and step families were more physically active than those living in two-parent homes and with biological parents, respectively. However, adolescents residing with grandparents were less active than those living with neither grandparent. No significant difference was found in MVPA time between adolescents living with one sibling and those without siblings.Conclusion. Family environment may be considered in the development of PA interventions and policies, and adolescents living with their grandparents may be targeted in PA promotion.

Author(s):  
Jolanthe de Koning ◽  
Suzanne H. Richards ◽  
Grace E. R. Wood ◽  
Afroditi Stathi

Objective: Loneliness and social isolation are associated with higher risk of morbidity and mortality and physical inactivity in older age. This study explored the socioecological context in which both physically active and inactive older adults experience loneliness and/or social isolation in a UK rural setting. Design: A mixed-methods design employed semi structured interviews and accelerometer-measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Interviews explored the personal, social and environmental factors influencing engagement with physical activities, guided by an adapted-socioecological model of physical activity behaviour. Findings: Twenty-four older adults (MeanAge = 73 (5.8 SD); 12 women) were interviewed. Transcripts were thematically analysed and seven profiles of physical activity, social isolation and loneliness were identified. The high-MVPA group had established PA habits, reported several sources of social contact and evaluated their physical environment as activity friendly. The low MVPA group had diverse experiences of past engagement in social activities. Similar to the high MVPA, they reported a range of sources of social contact but they did not perceive the physical environment as activity friendly. Conclusions: Loneliness and/or social isolation was reported by both physically active and inactive older adults. There is wide diversity and complexity in types and intensity of PA, loneliness and social isolation profiles and personal, social and environmental contexts.


Author(s):  
Sergio Pulido Sánchez ◽  
Damián Iglesias Gallego

Interest in analyzing physically active behaviors during school recesses has grown in recent years as the school environment has consolidated (recess, physical education classes, lunch-time, before and after school) as a crucial space to bring these levels towards those recommended through intervention programs and improvements in the school environment. Unfortunately, in most of these studies, children do not achieve the 60 min a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommended by the World Health Organization. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention studies objectively measured with accelerometers that have emerged in recent years to determine the amount of MVPA of children at recess. This systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines. The extraction process for the studies included in this systematic review yielded a total of 43 articles. The studies were classified according to the methodological nature of the research: cross-sectional (n = 34), longitudinal (n = 3) and quasi-experimental (n = 6). The results of the studies confirm that during the recess period younger children are physically more active than older ones and that in general, boys are more physically active than girls. In addition, the data show that the school contributes to more than 40% of the total MVPA. The intervention programs led to an increase in MVPA of up to 5%. Providing schools with equipment and facilities shows that intervention programs are beneficial for raising children’s levels of physical activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Monika Übner ◽  
Kandela Õun ◽  
Merle Mägi

In 2013/2014, a study on students’ health behaviour was conducted in Estonia. In 2016, a school-aged children’s lifestyle study was carried out in Pärnu City and Pärnu County. The survey explored the students’ relations with their family and friends, family affluence, physical activity, use of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. 2,512 respondents participated in the study, 48% of them were boys and 52% girls. The respondents mainly had a family with two biological parents and their family financial status was mostly “good”. About half of the respondents played computer games 0.5–3 hours a day, but those who were physically active spent less hours behind the computer and had higher family financial status. Respondents who were not physically very active met friends less frequently. In communication with friends, they used more social media. The questionnaire included several questions about risk behaviours. If the respondent had one bad habit, this was likely to lead to other bad habits, too.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Meseck ◽  
Marta M. Jankowska ◽  
Jasper Schipperijn ◽  
Loki Natarajan ◽  
Suneeta Godbole ◽  
...  

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the impact of global positioning system (GPS) signal lapse on physical activity analyses, discover any existing associations between missing GPS data and environmental and demographics attributes, and to determine whether imputation is an accurate and viable method for correcting GPS data loss. Accelerometer and GPS data of 782 participants from 8 studies were pooled to represent a range of lifestyles and interactions with the built environment. Periods of GPS signal lapse were identified and extracted. Generalised linear mixed models were run with the number of lapses and the length of lapses as outcomes. The signal lapses were imputed using a simple ruleset, and imputation was validated against person-worn camera imagery. A final generalised linear mixed model was used to identify the difference between the amount of GPS minutes pre- and post-imputation for the activity categories of sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Over 17% of the dataset was comprised of GPS data lapses. No strong associations were found between increasing lapse length and number of lapses and the demographic and built environment variables. A significant difference was found between the pre- and postimputation minutes for each activity category. No demographic or environmental bias was found for length or number of lapses, but imputation of GPS data may make a significant difference for inclusion of physical activity data that occurred during a lapse. Imputing GPS data lapses is a viable technique for returning spatial context to accelerometer data and improving the completeness of the dataset.


1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Stratton

Physical educators have purported to teach children to be physically active and to promote their fitness. To achieve these goals, children should regularly experience moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during physical education lessons. For the purposes of this review, moderate physical activity is that which elicits a heart rate of 50% of maximum heart rate reserve (MHRR), moderate-to-vigorous activity elicits 60% of MHRR, and vigorous activity elicits 75% of MHRR. Duration criteria were set at 50% of lesson time or 20 min. The majority of lessons described in previous reports failed to achieve these criteria, although problems were noted in method and analyses of data. Lessons with physical activity as a direct goal have been successful in increasing MVPA. A greater focus on physical activity is required in the planning and delivery of physical education lessons if the physical activity and fitness goals of the physical education curriculum are to be met.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A Gasperetti ◽  
John T Foley ◽  
Stephen Yang ◽  
Luis Columna ◽  
Lauren J Lieberman

There is a current trend toward using innovative interventions, such as active video gaming to increase physical activity levels among youth with visual impairments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare three video games (Dance, Dance, Revolution [DDR]; EyeToy Kinetic; and Wii Boxing) in allowing youth with visual impairments to achieve time (seconds spent during a 10-min bout) in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Participants with complete data were youth ( N = 5) with visual impairments aged 10–16 years who played three games for 10-min bouts. Heart rate monitors measured physical activity intensity. A Friedman’s analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine differences between the three interactive video games. Most players were able to achieve time in MVPA in all three games and there was a significant difference in time spent in MVPA, χ2(2) = 7.4, p = .024, with the most time in MVPA from playing EyeToy Kinetic. This study demonstrated that EyeToy Kinetic, Wii Boxing, and DDR are capable of helping youth with visual impairments accrue time in MVPA.


Author(s):  
Dorthe Dalstrup Jakobsen ◽  
Jasper Schipperijn ◽  
Jens Meldgaard Bruun

Background: In Denmark, most children are not sufficiently physically active and only a few interventions have been found to increase long-term physical activity among overweight and obese children. The aim of our study was to investigate if children are physically active in correspondence to Danish recommendations after attending a multicomponent-overnight camp. Methods: A questionnaire was developed to estimate children’s physical activity level and behavior and investigate how transport, economy, availability, time, motivation, and knowledge about physical activity affect children’s physical activity level and behavior. Results: In this study, 60.9% of the children did vigorous physical activity (VPA) minimum 30 minutes 3 times per week up to 3 years after camp. Most children were physically active at a sports club (44.3%) and only 5.7% of the children did not participate in physical activity. Parental physical activity and child motivation toward physical activity were significantly (P < .05) associated with children doing VPA. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that 60.9% of children who attended camp engage in VPA after camp, which compared with a recent Danish study, is more frequent than children who did not attend camp. Further investigations are needed to determine the long-term health effects in children attending interventions such as multicomponent-overnight camps.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (OCE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisling O'Donnell ◽  
Maria Buffini ◽  
Laura Kehoe ◽  
Aoibhín Moore Heslin ◽  
Anne Nugent ◽  
...  

AbstractBeing physically active is associated with fundamental health benefits and assists with the maintenance of normal weight in children. The current World Health Organizations’ recommendation is for children to accumulate 60 minutes of physical activity (PA) per day to obtain such benefits. Conversely, time spent in sedentary behaviours including watching screens (ST) are positively associated with the risk of overweight and obesity in young people. The aim of this research was to estimate PA levels and ST usage of Irish children and to examine the relationship with body fat.This analysis was based on data collected from a nationally representative sample of Irish children aged 5–12-years (n = 591, 50% female) from The National Children's Food Consumption Survey II (www.iuna.net). The Child/Youth Physical Activity Questionnaires (C-PAQ/Y-PAQ) were used to measure PA and ST in 5–8 and 9–12-year-olds respectively. Both questionnaires were self-administered, recall instruments that assessed the frequency/duration of activities participated in over the previous 7-day period. The MET minutes (metabolic cost of the activity multiplied by the duration in minutes) of the PA's were calculated per child. Percentage body fat (%BF) was measured by a Tanita BC420MA device and participants were classified into categories based on their %BF, age and gender. Independent t-tests and ANOVA (post-hoc DunnettT-3) were used to assess differences between gender and %BF category.Overall, children spent 93 mins/d being physically active with 69% meeting the > 1hr recommendation. There was a significant difference in the time spent undertaking PA between boys (99 mins/d) and girls (88 mins/d) p = 0.020. Children spent 107 mins/d watching screens with 68% meeting the < 2hr guidance. Girls spent significantly less time watching screens (89 mins/d) than boys (124 mins/d) p ≤ 0.001. Children who had a normal %BF accumulated more PA MET mins/day compared to those who were classified as obese, which was significant in the total population (p = 0.007), for boys (p ≤ 0.001), but not girls (p = 0.929).This preliminary analysis indicates that a high proportion of Irish children are meeting the PA and ST recommendations, with boys being more physically active and spending more time watching screens compared to girls. However, results should be interpreted with caution as PA and ST usage were self-reported by participants. The association between PA MET minutes and %BF suggest that advice to encourage PA participation to combat excess adiposity in Irish children is justified. Future work should examine the role of other potential determinants of obesity in this cohort.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 982-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noe C. Crespo ◽  
Kirsten Corder ◽  
Simon Marshall ◽  
Gregory J. Norman ◽  
Kevin Patrick ◽  
...  

Background:Girls are less physically active than boys, yet no single study has examined the factors that may explain gender differences in children’s physical activity (PA).Methods:This study was a cross-sectional analysis of data from 116 caregivers and their children aged 5–8 years who participated in the MOVE study. Caregivers reported various factors that may relate to children’s PA (eg, encouragement for child PA and PA equipment at home). Child PA was measured by 7-day accelerometry. Linear regression tested for the variance in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) explained by gender and several variables. Gender and ethnicity interactions were examined.Results:Caregivers were mostly female (97%), mean age 38 ± 6 years, mean BMI 28 ± 6 (kg/m2). Child’s mean age was 8.1 ± 0.7, 54% were female and 40% were overweight/obese. Girls were less physically active than boys (54.1 ± 19.7 vs. 65.2 ± 28.0 daily minutes of MVPA, respectively). Among girls, more days of PE/week was associated with greater MVPA. Among boys, greater parent support for PA, greater parent modeling for PA, and greater number of PA equipment in the home were associated with greater MVPA.Conclusions:This study supports that boys and girls have different correlates for MVPA, which may partly explain gender differences in PA.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 442-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Nichol ◽  
Ian Janssen ◽  
William Pickett

Background:The safety of neighborhoods and availability of parks and facilities may influence adolescent physical activity independently or interactively.Methods:9114 Canadians in grades 6 to 10 completed the 2006 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Survey. The outcome of interest was students’ self-reported participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity outside of school. A composite scale based on questions measuring student perceptions of safety was used to capture individual perceptions of safety. In addition, schools were grouped into quintiles based on the mean of the perceived safety scale, used as a proxy for peer perceptions. The number of parks and recreational facilities within 5 km of schools was abstracted from a geographical information system.Results:Moderate gradients in physical activity were observed according to individual and group perceptions of safety. Boys and girls with the highest perceptions of safety were 1.31 (95% CI: 1.17−1.45) and 1.45 (1.26−1.65) times more likely to be physically active, respectively, than those with the lowest perceptions. Compared with those who perceived the neighborhood as least safe, elementary students in higher quintiles were 1.31, 1.39, 1.37, and 1.56 times more likely to be physically active (Ptrend = 0.012). Increased numbers of recreational features were not related to physical activity irrespective of neighborhood safety.Conclusions:Individual and group perceptions of neighborhood safety were modestly associated with adolescents’ physical activity.


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