Patterns of School-Day Activity in Korean Children and Adolescents

Background/Purpose: Physical activity enhancement and restriction of sedentary behavior are mainly considered to reduce the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. In Korea, increased study hours in schools and institutions, and decrease physical activity hours in schools were additionally reported as main factors. This study aimed to describe time of age- and gender-related physical activity patterns on school-days in Korean children and adolescents.

Method: This study analyzed 844 activity diaries recorded by elementary and middle school students aged 11 to 14 from Seoul and Kyonggi in Korea. The data were collected using a Ko-MARCA (Korean version of the multimedia activity recall for children and adolescent), which were tested reliability and validity.

Analysis/Results: The data were analyzed using SPSS version 18.0 program. Frequency analysis and one-way ANOVA were used to examine differences. Alpha was set at .05. Overall, boys reported higher hard (boys: 22.05±12.02, girls: 10.24±9.66, p=.036), very hard (boys: 12.05±15.34, girls: 4.49±9.39, p=.012), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, boys: 106.09±93.57, girls: 63±35.12, p=.041) in minute, and physical activity level (PALs, boys: 1.62±0.21, girls: 1.49±0.16, p=.037) than girls. All time of intensity-related activity decreased with age. Sleeping time also decreased with age and there was no significantly difference between genders.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that age- and gender-related activity patterns on school days vary within middle school students. This may relate biological, social, or/and school curriculum factors.