<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Study aim: Over the past decade there have been numerous efforts to identify how many steps/day children should accumulate. Recommendations range from 10,000 to 16,500 steps/day. The purpose of this article was to examine the percentage of elementary school aged children meeting nine different sets of steps/day recommendations.Material and methods: 786 Southwestern US children (410 girls, BMI 19.3±4.2) wore the Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 pedometer and recorded their steps/day for 7 consecutive days. Mean steps/day was calculated and the percent-age of students meeting each of the various steps/day recommendations was determined.Results: Children averaged 11,113±3,666 steps/day. Sixty-one percent of all children met a minimum of 10,000 steps/day. Thirty-six percent met the most widely used recommendation of 11,000 and 13,000 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. Using BMI referenced recommendations, between 10-52% of children met various guidelines.Conclusions: Southwestern US children in the current sample are not getting enough daily activity to meet the ma-jority of step recommendations. Findings suggest that less than 33% of children are active for 60 minutes of physical activity (inferred from one of the guidelines) a day and only 36% would qualify for the Presidential Active Life-styles Award. Additional school and home-based physical activity programming is clearly needed.</abstract>

Study aim: Over the past decade there have been numerous efforts to identify how many steps/day children should accumulate. Recommendations range from 10,000 to 16,500 steps/day. The purpose of this article was to examine the percentage of elementary school aged children meeting nine different sets of steps/day recommendations.Material and methods: 786 Southwestern US children (410 girls, BMI 19.3±4.2) wore the Yamax Digiwalker SW-200 pedometer and recorded their steps/day for 7 consecutive days. Mean steps/day was calculated and the percent-age of students meeting each of the various steps/day recommendations was determined.Results: Children averaged 11,113±3,666 steps/day. Sixty-one percent of all children met a minimum of 10,000 steps/day. Thirty-six percent met the most widely used recommendation of 11,000 and 13,000 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. Using BMI referenced recommendations, between 10-52% of children met various guidelines.Conclusions: Southwestern US children in the current sample are not getting enough daily activity to meet the ma-jority of step recommendations. Findings suggest that less than 33% of children are active for 60 minutes of physical activity (inferred from one of the guidelines) a day and only 36% would qualify for the Presidential Active Life-styles Award. Additional school and home-based physical activity programming is clearly needed.

Are children meeting any of the suggested daily step
recommendations?

Biomedical Human Kinetics

{"article-title":"Are children meeting any of the suggested daily step\nrecommendations?"}

Study aim: Over the past decade there have been numerous efforts to identify how many steps/day children should accumulate. Recommendations range from 10,000...

Are children meeting any of the suggested daily step recommendations?

Publié en ligne: 13 sept. 2013

Pages: 11 - 16

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2013-0003

This content is open access.