Citation
Lee, Nolan C.; Voss, Christine; Frazer, Amanda D.; Hirsch, Jana A.; McKay, Heather A.; & Winters, Meghan (2016). Does Activity Space Size Influence Physical Activity Levels of Adolescents?—A GPS Study of an Urban Environment. Preventive Medicine Reports, 3, 75-78. PMCID: PMC4718608Abstract
Background: Physical activity (PA) is closely linked with child and youth health, and active travel may be a solution to enhancing PA levels. Activity spaces depict the geographic coverage of one's travel. Little is known about activity spaces and PA in adolescents. Objective: To explore the relation between adolescent travel (using a spatial measure of activity space size) and daily moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), with a focus on school days.Methods: We used Global Positioning Systems to manually identify trips and generate activity spaces for each person-day; quantified by area for 39 students (13.8 ± 0.6 years, 38% female) attending high school in urban Downtown Vancouver, Canada. We assessed the association between activity space area and MVPA using multi-level regression. We calculated total, school-day and trip-based MVPA for each valid person-day (accelerometry; ≥ 600 min wear time).
Results: On school days, students accrued 68.2 min/day (95% CI 60.4–76.0) of MVPA. Daily activity spaces averaged 2.2 km2 (95% CI 1.3–3.0). There was no association between activity space size and school-day MVPA. Students accrued 21.8 min/day (95% CI 19.2–24.4) of MVPA during school hours, 19.4 min/day (95% CI 15.1–23.7) during travel, and 28.3 min/day (95% CI 22.3–34.3) elsewhere.
Conclusion: School and school travel are important sources of PA in Vancouver adolescents, irrespective of activity space area covered.
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2015.12.002Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2016Journal Title
Preventive Medicine ReportsAuthor(s)
Lee, Nolan C.Voss, Christine
Frazer, Amanda D.
Hirsch, Jana A.
McKay, Heather A.
Winters, Meghan