Background and Purpose Pedometers are popular, relatively inexpensive tools for objectively measuring physical activity. Pedometers have been used in schools to estimate and monitor student physical activity levels. A few studies have provided mixed evidence demonstrating the validity of pedometers for measuring physical activity levels, and several have suggested pedometer ...
Background and Purpose Research suggests that public transportation (PT) (e.g., bus, rail) users are more physically active than non-users. However, this difference could be explained by other individual or shared environmental factors that differ between PT users versus non-users (e.g., attitudinal predisposition for being active; transit users live ...
Background and Purpose Research investigating relationships between physical activity (PA) for transportation and the built and social environments relies upon accurate measures of PA. Developing accurate and reliable measures has been an objective of the ALR program, as well as of behavioral researchers more generally. Generally, objectives measures are preferred ...
Background and Purpose Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) has a range of social and health benefits for adolescents. Based on survey data, adolescents with a low Socio Economic Status (SES), and/or belonging to an ethnic minority, typically engage in less organized sports than Danish adolescents. However little is ...
Background and Purpose Physical activity (PA) during childhood and adolescence is essential for good health, normal growth and development. Accurate measurement of PA in children has a great importance for assessing frequency, duration and intensity to examine the trends, dose response and effectiveness of interventions to reduce the attributable risk ...
Background
African American youth residing in the South are at high risk for obesity and physical inactivity. A growing body of evidence suggests that persons living in activity-friendly environments engage in more physical activity (PA); however, access of public recreational facilities varies by neighborhood and demographic characteristics. Additionally, historical and ...
Background
Changes in physical activity (PA) levels can be observed among youth. The majority of 11 year olds in Denmark do meet the recommend level of PA; the majority of 15 year olds do not. The chances of not meeting the recommended level of PA as adults are correlated with not meeting ...
Background
Hispanic-American preschool children have higher rates of obesity and Hispanic-American youth may be at higher risk for sedentary lifestyles and metabolic syndrome. Both physical and social environmental factors influence young children’s physical activity. The ability to simultaneously capture objective measurement of physical activity and location of young Hispanic-American ...
Background
Evidence suggests that parents play an important role in shaping children’s physical activity levels through behavioral modeling and support. Physically active parents are more likely to have physically active children. However, research indicates that on average, parents and children spend less than 5 minutes per day engaging in physical ...
Background
Determining the relation of built environment characteristics to physical activity and obesity remains an ongoing public health concern. Recent literature suggests that environment characteristics of smart growth planning (e.g., walkability, preservation of open space) may promote physical activity. However, the majority of studies examining associations between these environmental ...