Quantitative physical activity assessment of children and adolescents in a rural population from Eastern Nepal

Abstract

We report child and adolescent physical activity patterns from the Jirel population of eastern Nepal. In this rural context, children and adolescents are more active than populations reported from Western contexts. This key finding has important biomedical implications for the maintenance of healthy body composition, skeletal health, and other health traits.

A Systematic Review of Children’s Physical Activity Patterns: Concept, Operational Definitions, Instruments, Statistical Analyses, and Health Implications

“…A wide range of instruments were used to determine PAP including accelerometers [ 8 , 9 , 12 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ], pedometers [ 22 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ], heart rate monitors [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 ], questionnaires/diaries [ 10 , 11 , 27 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ...…”

“…Thirty-nine studies used accelerometers to assess PAP, from which 32 relied solely on accelerometers, while 7 studies employed them in combination with another instrument ( Table 2 ). In general, children were monitored from 3 days to 2 weeks consecutively (in seven of the studies, children were monitored more than once [ 8 , 9 , 29 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]), and most of the data were collected during children’s awake period only; only in 4 studies [ 32 , 34 , 50 , 56 ] did children wear the accelerometer for 24 h/day.…”

“…In other words, researchers were primarily focussed on describing/identifying the amount of time (or the percentage of time) children spent in PA of different intensities (including sedentary behaviour). The main idea was to determine how these activities vary across the day (considering different segments of the day) [ 14 , 28 , 29 , 35 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 53 , 56 , 85 , 86 , 89 ], across week and weekend days [ 12 , 14 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 55 , 56 , 85 , 86 ], or even how children respond to an intervention program [ 52 , 54 ].…”

“…However, when this approach was used, authors focused their efforts on children’s MVPA (the time spent in each day, as well as the number of days they comply with the PA guidelines) [ 12 , 35 , 41 , 42 , 44 ]. In addition, a large number of papers also focused on comparing PAP between weekdays (or school days) and weekend days, considering the average value of the days (Monday to Friday for weekdays; Saturday and/or Sunday for weekend days) [ 8 , 12 , 14 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 55 , 85 , 86 ], and two studies investigated the effect of an intervention program on children’s PAP comparing differences in mean minutes children spent in different PA intensities and sedentariness/rest [ 52 , 54 ]. None of the studies investigated children’s PAP by day and/or by hour at the same time (when authors focussed in daily PAP, the daily averages were used; while when the focus was on hourly PAP, averages of each intensity of PA per each hour were used).…”

“…From the studies included in the present review, 24 studied associations between PAP and health indicators in children, including body composition [ 40 , 82 , 93 ], nutritional status [ 11 , 12 , 28 , 34 , 45 , 50 , 57 , 59 , 60 , 66 , 67 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 84 , 89 , 90 ], cardiovascular [ 78 ] or metabolic risk factors [ 51 ], and bone mineral density [ 83 ].…”