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Midlands youth to take part in study on measuring activity levels

November 13, 2012

Arnold School exercise scientist Dr. Russ Pate is working to develop a physical activity self-report measurement instrument that provides valid and detailed information on physical activity behavior in U.S. youth.

Self-report instruments provide information that objective measures of physical activity (such as activity monitors) can’t provide, including the types of activities that people participate in and the settings in which they are physically active.

Funded by a $398,750 R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute, Pate’s project will involve a research team from the USC Children’s Physical Activity Research Group, including Dr. Christine DiStefano of the USC Department of Educational Studies and Dr. Michael Beets, Dr. Marsha Dowda, Dr. Kerry McIver, Brandy Dashnaw and Dale Murrie of the Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Exercise Science.

The two-year project will involve 700 youth, ages 11 - 14, drawn from middle schools in the Midlands.

Pate said the need for a refined instrument for measuring physical activity in children and adolescents arises out of a need to improve existing self-reporting methodology, which he describes as “pretty crude.”

Additionally, he says that young people have difficulty answering questions about their physical activity, “either because the questions are too complicated or because they don’t ask about the kinds of things that kids can remember.

“Kids are notably unable to report on their time of participation in anything. They’re just not very good at it,” he said.

In order to create an instrument that more accurately assesses physical activity, Pate and his team will ask middle school students a series of questions that they should be able to answer accurately, such as: “Did you walk to school any day this week? Are you enrolled in a PE class? Did you do any chores at home?”

The study carries high public health significance because it will develop a measure of physical activity in youth that has excellent validity and is practical for use in surveillance systems and large sample investigations, he said.

      

New study: Tots need to move more

November 12, 2012

Walk, play, jump, run or take off on a tricycle. Whatever you do, get children moving more.

Arnold School of Public Health researchers Dr. Russ Pate and Dr. Jennifer O’Neill are calling for three hours of daily exercise for children under age six.

In a commentary in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the University of South Carolina Arnold School colleagues note that, with the increasing number of children who are overweight or obese, numerous authorities are recommending more action be taken to improve children’s health. In the United States alone, 26.7 percent of children between the ages of two and five are obese or overweight.

While it’s been previously thought that young children need a minimum of one hour of physical activity a day, major organizations in three countries -- Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – are seeking to raise the benchmark to three hours.

Studies using accelerometers (wristwatch-like devices that measure physical activity), show that preschool-age kids get only sporadic exercise, with very little of it vigorous.

For children under age six, experts generally advise a combination of light activity and energetic activity throughout the day. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom states that lighter activity can be casual walking, moving around and less energetic playtime. More energetic activities include fast walking, riding a bike, dancing, swimming, skipping rope, and active play such as hide-and-seek games.

In 2010, Australia’s Department of Health and Aging recommended toddlers and preschoolers be active daily for at least three hours, spread throughout the day. In 2011, the U.S. Institute of Medicine recommended parents and others caring for children provide “opportunities for light, moderate, and vigorous physical activity for at least 15 minutes per hour,” which translates to three hours daily, for children who spend 12 hours awake.

“These three new guidelines, although using somewhat distinct phrasing, are remarkably similar in that they all recommend that young children engage in three hours of total physical activity per day,” Pate and O’Neill wrote in their commentary.

The two scientists are members of the Arnold School’s Children’s Physical Activity Research Group. Pate is principal investigator for the organization; O’Neill is a post-doctoral fellow.