Step-counter determined walking in youth in Colorado.
BACKGROUND
Results from a statewide telephone survey of walking showed that the average adult in Colorado takes 6804 steps/d, and that steps/d were negatively associated with body mass index. No similar data exist for children.


METHODS
As part of the Colorado survey, demographic information was obtained from parents for 116 children. A subsample of 59 children and adolescents (age 10 to 17 y) agreed to wear a step counter for four consecutive days.


RESULTS
The youth reported taking an average of 7902 steps/d. There was a trend for children's steps/d to be positively associated with parents' steps/d and negatively associated with TV watching.


CONCLUSIONS
This sample of children is not large enough to be considered a representative sample of Colorado youth, but this cross-sectional study provides some much needed information about steps/d in children and generates some interesting hypotheses about steps/d and other measures of health and overweight.
Stroebele
Nanette
N
University of Colorado in Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO,USA.
Wyatt
Holly R
HR
Reed
George W
GW
Peters
John C
JC
Hill
James O
JO
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003120:Colorado / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009043:Motor Activity; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D050177:Overweight; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*