Pedometer Steps per Minute Standards in Physical Education: Does the Pedometer Matter?

Background/Purpose Previous research has demonstrated that the Yamax pedometer accurately quantifies physical education (PE) physical activity (PA) standards; however pedometers of different manufacturers do not demonstrate clinically acceptable agreement within PE (Scruggs, 2007; Scruggs et al., 2010). The purpose of this study was to replicate previous Yamax PE steps/min standard findings by quantifying PA via pedometry albeit with the Walk4Life pedometer. The objective was to determine steps/min cut point intervals for the 33% and 50% (i.e., percent of lesson time engaged in %PA) PA guidelines via the Walk4Life pedometer.

Method Data were collected on 411 fifth- through twelfth-grade (M_age=13.83±2.17) participants who had concurrently measured pedometer and behavioral observation data. The Walk4Life and Yamax pedometer outcome measure was steps/min, and behavioral observation measure was %PA

Analysis/Results Pearson r correlation, and diagnostic (i.e., efficiency, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and ROC) tests were conducted. Steps/min and %PA demonstrated a strong relationship (Walk4Life, r=0.96; Yamax, r=0.96; p=.0001), (b) Walk4Life pedometer steps/min accurately discriminated between achievement and non-achievement of PA standards, and (c) the Walk4Life steps/min cut point intervals (55.02 to 56.67, 77.72 to 78.98) were significantly lower than those found for the Yamax pedometer (61.32 to 62.01, 80.99 to 85.54) for the PE PA standards 33% and 50%, respectively.

Conclusions Walk4Life steps/min demonstrated a strong relationship with %PA, and outstanding accuracy for PE PA standard discrimination; however, steps/min values indicative of PE PA standard achievement is pedometer brand dependent, and should be considered for steps/min implementation and surveillance.