The Weather Impact on Physical Activity of 6–12 Year Old Children: A Clustered Study of the Health Oriented Pedagogical Project (HOPP)

Abstract

It is commonly known that children do not engage in a sufficient amount of physical activity. Weather conditions and day length may influence physical activity of children. Little is known about the relationship between physical activity and seasons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between weather conditions and physical activity in 6–12 year old children based on hip-worn Actigraph wGT3X–BT accelerometer data. The study sample consisted of 2015 subjects aged 6–12 years from the Health Oriented Pedagogical Project (HOPP) study carried out in Horten municipality and Akershus county, Norway. Six days of sedentary and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity data was gathered in January–June and September–October, 2015, presented as daily averages. The accelerometer-monitored physical activity of children grouped within nine schools was matched with regional weather conditions and assessed with the means of linear mixed models. Increased day length was associated with decreased sedentary behavior. Warmer temperature and dry weather were associated with increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity after adjusting for age and sex. One-hour increase in daylight resulted in a decrease of sedentary time by, on average, 2 min (95% CI = (−2.577, −0.798)). For every 5 °C increase in temperature (range: −0.95 and 15.51 °C) and dry weather, average moderate-to vigorous physical activity increased by 72 and 67 min (males and females, respectively) (p < 0.001). Days with precipitation had, on average, 10 fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity compared with days without precipitation (95% CI = (−16.704, −3.259)). Higher temperatures and dry weather led to higher physical activity levels, seeing larger increases among boys than girls. A school-based physical activity intervention program should be adjusted regarding local weather conditions in line with the present findings.

The Impact of Temperature on 24-Hour Movement Behaviors among Chinese Freshmen Students

“…Consistent with previous research that there was no significant correlation between temperature and SB among our survey participants [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], a study on a sample of 740 Hong Kong adolescents reported that there was no significant relationship between temperature and SB during weekdays [ 57 ]. Another study from 722 children aged 10–12 years in five countries found that temperature was not significantly associated with SB [ 58 ].…”

Objective Behavioral Measures in Children before, during, and after the COVID-19 Lockdown in Israel

“…As mentioned above, the study in the United States found an effect of season on time outdoors; however, physical activity was not significantly different between seasons [29]. On the other hand, children in Norway [60,61], Portugal [62], and England [63] were more active in warmer, drier seasons, and children in Australia were more active in winter than summer [64,65]. Interestingly, in the latter study, boys did not exhibit seasonal fluctuation in physical activity [64].…”

Association between time of assessment within a school year and physical fitness of primary school children

“…As expected, boys outperformed girls in five fitness tests assessing cardiorespiratory endurance, coordination, speed, and muscle power. The better performance of boys in these tests is likely related to differences in body composition 66 , 67 , endocrine levels 68 , and activity levels 20 , 55 , 69 , 70 . Pre-adolescent boys tend to exhibit lower fat and higher lean mass than pre-adolescent girls 66 , 67 .…”