AUTHOR=Klinker Charlotte D., Schipperijn Jasper , Kerr Jacqueline , Ersbøll Annette K., Troelsen Jens 

TITLE=Context-Specific Outdoor Time and Physical Activity among School-Children Across Gender and Age: Using Accelerometers and GPS to Advance Methods

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2014

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00020

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2014.00020

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Introduction: Being outdoors has a positive influence on health among children. Evidence in this area is limited and many studies have used self-reported measures. Objective context-specific assessment of physical activity patterns and correlates, such as outdoor time, may progress this field.<br/>Aims: To employ novel objective measures to assess age and gender differences in context-specific outdoor weekday behavior patterns among school-children (outdoor time and outdoor MVPA) and to investigate associations between context-specific outdoor time and MVPA.<br/>Methods: A total of 170 children had at least one weekday of nine hours combined accelerometer and GPS data and were included in the analyses. The data were processed using the Personal Activity and Location Measurement System and a purpose-built PostgreSQL database resulting in context-specific measures for outdoor time, outdoor MVPA and overall daily MVPA. In addition, four domains (leisure, school, transport and home) and 11 subdomains (e.g. urban green space, sports facilities) were created and assessed. Multilevel analyses provided results on age and gender differences and the association between outdoor time and MVPA.<br/>Results: Girls compared to boys had fewer outdoors minutes (p< 0.05), spent a smaller proportion of their overall daily time outdoors (p< 0.05), had fewer outdoor MVPA minutes during the day (p< 0.001) and in 11 contexts. Children compared to adolescents had more outdoor minutes (p< 0.05). During school and within recess, children compared to adolescents had more outdoor MVPA (p< 0.001) and outdoor time (p< 0.001). A one hour increase in outdoor time was associated with 9.9 more minutes of MVPA (p< 0.001).<br/>Conclusion:A new methodology to assess context-specific outdoor time and physical activity patterns has been developed and can be expanded to other populations. Different context-specific patterns were found for gender and age, suggesting different strategies may be needed to promote physical activity