title: Pedometer-determined segmented physical activity patterns of fourth- and fifth-grade children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The need to understand where and how much physical activity (PA) children accumulate has become important in assisting the development, implementation, and evaluation of PA interventions. The purpose of this study was to describe the daily PA patterns of children during the segmented school-week.
  
  
  METHODS
  829 children participated by wearing pedometers (Yamax-Digiwalker SW-200) for 5 consecutive days. Students recorded their steps at arrival/departure from school, Physical Education (PE), recess, and lunchtime.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Boys took significantly more steps/day than girls during most PA opportunities; recess, t(440)=8.80, P<.01; lunch, t(811)=14.57, P<.01; outside of school, t(763)=5.34, P<.01; school, t(811)=10.61, P<.01; and total day, t(782)=7.69, P<.01. Boys and girls accumulated a similar number of steps t(711) .69, P=.09 during PE. For boys, lunchtime represented the largest single source of PA (13.4%) at school, followed by PE (12.7%) and recess (9.5%). For girls, PE was the largest (14.3%), followed by lunchtime (11.7%) and recess (8.3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An understanding of the contributions of the in-school segments can serve as baseline measures for practitioners and researchers to use in school-based PA interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies, and Physical Education, College of Brockport, Brockport, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Brusseau
authors.forename: Pamela H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Kulinna
authors.forename: Catrine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tudor-Locke
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferry
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van der Mars
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Darst
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016138:Walking