An accurate understanding of the physical activity (PA) patterns of children and adolescents is essential for designing effective interventions. Little attention has been paid; however, to comparing the step patterns of children on weekdays and weekend days. To date, only five studies have examined the pedometer-determined PA of youth during weekdays and weekend days, with varying results. None of these studies have focused on US elementary school children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in pedometer-determined PA patterns of elementary-aged children during weekdays and weekend days. A secondary purpose was to examine the sex, ethnicity, and BMI stratified differences associated with each type of day (i.e., weekday versus weekend).
Method
Participants were 363 4th and 5th grade children from 6 schools who wore pedometers (Yamax Digiwalker SW-200) for 7 consecutive days. The ethnic background of the children as reported by parents included 161 (44%) Caucasian, 139 (38%) Hispanic, 22 (6%) African American, 14 (4%) Native American, 13 (4%) Asian/Pacific Islander, and 14 (4%) Other/did not report. Participants ranged in age from 8-11 (Mean = 9.7 ± .6 and 9.6 ± .6 for boys and girls, respectively) and had an average BMI of 19.7 ± 4.0 and 19.2 ± 4.2 for boys and girls, respectively.
Analysis/Results
The children averaged 13,196 (boys) and 11,295 (girls) steps/weekday. This is compared to a weekend day average steps/day of 7,660 (boys) and 7,317 (girls) suggesting a significant difference (t545) = -21.96, p < .01). Boys were significantly more active on weekdays (t (855) = 8.01, p < .01). Significant differences were also found on weekdays by BMI (F (2, 352) = 4.54, p < .05. These differences were between normal weight and obese children (p<.05, Δ = 1284). Results showed no significant differences across sex, ethnic groups or BMI for weekends.
Conclusions
Based on the findings in this study, children are generally more active during school days than on weekend days. This supports findings from other studies suggesting that elementary aged children are less active on weekend days compared to school days. Furthermore, few children are meeting the daily recommended steps/ day (13,000 and 11,000 for boys and girls, respectively) on weekend days set forth by the President's Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Program. This suggests that increased PA programming and interventions during weekend and non-school days may be necessary to increase the PA patterns of children.