timperio-exploringwhenand-2019.pdf (829.69 kB)
Exploring when and how adolescents sit: cross-sectional analysis of activPAL-measured patterns of daily sitting time, bouts and breaks
journal contribution
posted on 2019-06-11, 00:00 authored by Lauren ArundellLauren Arundell, Jo SalmonJo Salmon, Harriet KoortsHarriet Koorts, Ana Maria Contardo AyalaAna Maria Contardo Ayala, Anna TimperioAnna TimperioBACKGROUND: This study describes patterns of adolescents' objectively-measured sitting volume, sitting bouts, and breaks in sitting during different days and periods of the day, and explored differences by sex and weekdays versus weekend days. METHODS: ActivPAL™ data were collected in August 2014-December 2015 from adolescents attending secondary government schools in Melbourne Australia. Eight periods (early morning, mid-morning, morning break, late morning, lunch, early afternoon, late-afternoon and evening) were extracted for each day. School time, class time and out-of-school time were also extracted for weekdays. The percentage of time sitting, percentage of each hour in prolonged sitting (sitting bout ≥10 min), and number of sitting breaks/hour were calculated for each period. Differences by sex, and week and weekend days were determined using t-tests. RESULTS: Participants (n = 297, 15.4 ± 1.6 years) spent 68% of their day sitting; ~ 30% of each hour in prolonged sitting and 3.1 sitting breaks/hour. Sitting time was greater during class time (75%) and school (70%) compared to out-of-school time (65%). Sitting patterns differed between week and weekend days for all periods except the evening period. Girls had higher proportion of sitting during class than boys (76% vs 72% respectively) and school hours (72% vs 67%), more prolonged sitting during school hours (27% vs 23%), and more sitting breaks per hour during out-of-school time (2.6 vs 2.4), but fewer during class (2.5 vs 3.3) and school hours (2.7 vs 3.3). Sitting patterns did not differ by sex on weekend days. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents spent two-thirds of their waking hours sitting, with distinct patterns on weekdays and weekend days. Even though boys and girls were exposed to the same school day routine, girls spent more time sitting and had fewer sitting breaks. Class times, school breaks and the evening period were identified as key intervention periods. Further research is needed to understand the behavioural differences, and guide future intervention design.
History
Journal
BMC public healthVolume
19Article number
653Pagination
1 - 9Publisher
BioMed CentralLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
Link to full text
eISSN
1471-2458Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2019, The Author(s)Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC