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A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care

The aims of this study were to quantify and examine differences in preschoolers’ indoor and outdoor sedentary time and physical activity intensity at child care using GPS devices and accelerometers. We conducted an observational study of 46 children (mean age 4.5 years, 30 boys, 16 girls) from five...

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Autores principales: Tandon, Pooja S., Saelens, Brian E., Zhou, Chuan, Christakis, Dimitri A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6265760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400603
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112463
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author Tandon, Pooja S.
Saelens, Brian E.
Zhou, Chuan
Christakis, Dimitri A.
author_facet Tandon, Pooja S.
Saelens, Brian E.
Zhou, Chuan
Christakis, Dimitri A.
author_sort Tandon, Pooja S.
collection PubMed
description The aims of this study were to quantify and examine differences in preschoolers’ indoor and outdoor sedentary time and physical activity intensity at child care using GPS devices and accelerometers. We conducted an observational study of 46 children (mean age 4.5 years, 30 boys, 16 girls) from five child care centers who wore accelerometers and GPS devices around their waists for five days during regular child care hours. GPS signal-to-noise ratios were used to determine indoor vs. outdoor location. Accelerometer data were categorized by activity intensity. Children spent, on average, 24% of child care time outdoors (range 12–37% by site), averaging 74 min daily outdoors (range 30–119 min), with 54% of children spending ≥60 min/day outdoors. Mean accelerometer activity counts were more than twice as high outdoors compared to indoors (345 (95) vs. 159 (38), (p < 0.001)), for girls and boys. Children were significantly less sedentary (51% of time vs. 75%) and engaging in more light (18% vs. 13%) and moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) (31% vs. 12%) activity when outdoors compared to indoors (p < 0.001). To achieve a minute of MVPA, a preschooler needed to spend 9.1 min indoors vs. 3.8 min outdoors. Every additional 10 min outdoors each day was associated with a 2.9 min increase in MVPA (2.7 min for girls, 3.0 min for boys). Preschool-age children are twice as active and less sedentary when outdoors compared to indoors in child care settings. To help preschoolers achieve MVPA recommendations and likely attain other benefits, one strategy is to increase the amount of time they spend outdoors and further study how best to structure it.
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spelling pubmed-62657602018-12-15 A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care Tandon, Pooja S. Saelens, Brian E. Zhou, Chuan Christakis, Dimitri A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The aims of this study were to quantify and examine differences in preschoolers’ indoor and outdoor sedentary time and physical activity intensity at child care using GPS devices and accelerometers. We conducted an observational study of 46 children (mean age 4.5 years, 30 boys, 16 girls) from five child care centers who wore accelerometers and GPS devices around their waists for five days during regular child care hours. GPS signal-to-noise ratios were used to determine indoor vs. outdoor location. Accelerometer data were categorized by activity intensity. Children spent, on average, 24% of child care time outdoors (range 12–37% by site), averaging 74 min daily outdoors (range 30–119 min), with 54% of children spending ≥60 min/day outdoors. Mean accelerometer activity counts were more than twice as high outdoors compared to indoors (345 (95) vs. 159 (38), (p < 0.001)), for girls and boys. Children were significantly less sedentary (51% of time vs. 75%) and engaging in more light (18% vs. 13%) and moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) (31% vs. 12%) activity when outdoors compared to indoors (p < 0.001). To achieve a minute of MVPA, a preschooler needed to spend 9.1 min indoors vs. 3.8 min outdoors. Every additional 10 min outdoors each day was associated with a 2.9 min increase in MVPA (2.7 min for girls, 3.0 min for boys). Preschool-age children are twice as active and less sedentary when outdoors compared to indoors in child care settings. To help preschoolers achieve MVPA recommendations and likely attain other benefits, one strategy is to increase the amount of time they spend outdoors and further study how best to structure it. MDPI 2018-11-05 2018-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6265760/ /pubmed/30400603 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112463 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tandon, Pooja S.
Saelens, Brian E.
Zhou, Chuan
Christakis, Dimitri A.
A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title_full A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title_fullStr A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title_full_unstemmed A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title_short A Comparison of Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Indoors versus Outdoors at Child Care
title_sort comparison of preschoolers’ physical activity indoors versus outdoors at child care
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6265760/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400603
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112463
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