Sex- and age-specific seasonal variations in physical activity among adults

Abstract

Measuring physical activity throughout the year, rather than at one time point, would more accurately monitor physical activity and assist in developing seasonally appropriate physical activity interventions. Moreover, in countries that experience extreme weather conditions, creating physical activity-friendly environments that help overcome these conditions might contribute to year-long physical activity participation.

Caractéristiques de l’environnement bâti du quartier associées à différents types d’activité physique chez les adultes canadiens

“…Comparativement à la population de Calgary, les répondants au sondage téléphonique étaient plus instruits, comptaient une plus grande proportion d'aînés (60 ans et plus), étaient plus susceptibles d'avoir des personnes à charge de moins de 18 ans et comptaient une proportion plus importante de femmes, de personnes nées au Canada et de propriétaires 28 . Ajoutons que seuls les ménages ayant un téléphone fixe pouvaient être recrutés dans le cadre de notre étude.…”

A methodology to leverage cross-sectional accelerometry to capture weather’s influence in active living research

“…To match the accelerometry period, detailed Saskatoon-specific weather data for the days between April 28 and June 11, 2010 were obtained from Environment Canada. 22 On the basis of previous evidence, [7][8][9][10][11][12]23 extensive exploration of the weather data was conducted to identify daily values of key weather variables corresponding to the accelerometry period: maximum temperature, precipitation, speed of maximum wind gust and hours of illumination. Descriptive analyses were conducted to understand the distribution (i.e.,mean, median, standard deviation [SD]) of daily values of the selected weather variables during the 45 days of accelerometry in question (Table 3).…”

“…6 However, when the relationship between weather and PA has been investigated, thus far the focus of research has only been on isolated weather variables such as temperature and precipitation. [7][8][9][10][11][12] Nevertheless, active living research has advanced considerably in terms of utilizing accelerometers to objectively measure PA. Accelerometers are devices that are worn around the waist by participants and they measure frequency, intensity and duration of PA. 13 With advances in methodological expertise in accelerometry encompassing a wide range of categories, including reliability and validity of accelerometers, development of calibration protocols, and creation of data reduction methods, [13][14][15][16] these devices have become the gold standard for objective measurement of PA. More importantly, to date most active living research has been cross-sectional, resulting in large sets of accelerometry data from cohorts across the world. 17 These data have been under-utilized as they have not been linked to readily available weather data to factor in weather variation in analyses exploring urban design and built environment's influence on PA. We hypothesize that in active living research, not only could weather variation be captured, but localized (place-specific) weather patterns could also be established within a short time period in a calendar year.…”

Reducción de la actividad física en pacientes con enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica

“…Todos los participantes fueron citados en dos oportunidades en el lapso de una semana, entre los meses de diciembre de 2010 y marzo de 2011, con el fi n de evitar infl uencias estacionales sobre la actividad física 13 . En la primera visita se recolectaron datos socio-demográfi cos, magnitud de la disnea, y se efectuaron las pruebas de función pulmonar y de ejercicio.…”