title: Ambulatory physical activity levels of white and South Asian children in Central England.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess ambulatory physical activity in white and south Asian children from Central England and to examine variation in activity between weekdays and weekends.
  
  
  METHODS
  536 primary school children [255 boys and 281 girls, mean age (SD) = 9.6 (1.0) years] wore a sealed pedometer for 4 days (2 weekend and 2 weekdays). Repeated measures analysis of covariance was used to examine weekend versus weekday, gender, ethnic and socio-economic status differences in steps/day controlling for age, hours of daylight and body mass index (BMI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children attained significantly higher mean steps/day during weekdays than weekends (p = 0.001) with age being more strongly associated with weekend than weekday steps/day (p = 0.014). The decline in steps/day from weekdays to weekends was greater in high compared to low socio-economic status children (p = 0.002). White children attained higher mean steps/day than south Asian children (p = 0.015). BMI was negatively associated with steps/day (p = 0.004). 39.2 and 29.9% of white and south Asian children met the BMI-referenced cut-offs for health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physical activity was greater during weekdays compared to weekends, was associated with BMI, age and socio-economic status and white children were more active than south Asian children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomolecular and Sports Studies, Coventry University, UK. michael.duncan@coventry.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Birch
authors.forename: Yahya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Al-Nakeeb
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nevill
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy / Q000295:instrumentation; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001459:Bangladesh / Q000208:ethnology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*