Scheduled for Poster Session: The Impact of Physical Activity Across Society, Lifespans, and Cultures, Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall, Reseach Consortium Poster Sessions


Evaluation of the Physical Activity Level of Hong Kong Secondary School Girls

Yuanlong Liu, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI and Stanley Sai-Chuen Hui, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Daily physical activity is important when pursuing a healthy lifestyle from childhood to old age. For many U.S. secondary school students, an important part of the experience includes participation in after-school extracurricular and weekend physical activities (Ebie, 2007). It was reported only 31.5% of Hong Kong youth were physically active, and active boys were double of girls (Hui, 2004). There is little information available regarding daily PA activity patterns especially for girls (one of the major sedentary PA groups). The purpose of this study was to investigate the daily physical activity level and patter of secondary school girls in Hong Kong. Two hundred and seven adolescent girls (age 12-18years old) participated the study. They wore a pedometer and recorded the daily walking steps and daily physical activities in a log. The study was conducted during a two weeks time period. During the first week, the participants learned how to use the pedometers and record physical activity. The second week data were used for the analysis. The daily activities were recorded in a fifteen minute interval. The 24-hours daily activities were recorded as sedentary and recreation activities, exercise activities and sleeping. The daily activity data were converted into MET-Minutes. The MET-Minutes represent the daily total volume of PA by weighing each type of activity by its energy requirements defined in METs to yield a score in MET-Minutes. The daily activity from Monday to Sunday (total MET-Minutes scores) were graphed. The pre-post t-test was used to examine whether there was a difference between weekend and weekday daily average MET-Minutes scores. The descriptive statistics showed that the weekend daily total MET-Minutes averages were Mean(Saturday) = 2156.67 (Sd=327.84), and Mean(Sunday) = 2132.06 (Sd = 338.26). The weekday daily total MET-Minutes averages were Mean(Monday) = 2235.25 (Sd=235.25), Mean(Tuesday) = 2316.05 (Sd=285.74), Mean(Wednesday) = 2201.89 (Sd=287.99), Mean(Thursday) = 2191.64 (Sd=271.74), Mean(Friday) = 2221.72 (Sd=231.80). The results showed that the weekday daily total MET-Minutes averages were greater than the weekend daily total MET-Minutes averages. The results showed that the weekday average MET-Minutes was significantly greater than the weekend average MET-Minutes (t=4.07, p<.001). The activity log shows that the girls spent more time on sedentary activities than PA on weekends. PA occurred mainly during school days through physical education classes and other activities. The results imply that the secondary school girls need to participate in more active physical activities and reduce participation in sedentary activities on weekends.
Keyword(s): exercise/fitness/physical activity

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