Pedometer-determined step-count guidelines for afterschool programs.
BACKGROUND
Policies to require afterschool programs (ASPs, 3 PM to 6 PM) to provide children a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) exist. With few low-cost, easy-to-use measures of MVPA available to the general public, ASP providers are limited in their ability to track progress toward achieving this policy-goal. Pedometers may fill this gap, yet there are no step-count guidelines for ASPs linked to 30 minutes of MVPA.


METHODS
Steps and accelerometer estimates of MVPA were collected concurrently over multiple days on 245 children (8.2 years, 48% boys, BMI-percentile 68.2) attending 3 community-based ASPs. Random intercept logit models and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to identify a threshold of steps that corresponded with attaining 30 minutes of MVPA.


RESULTS
Children accumulated an average of 2876 steps (standard error [SE] 79) and 16.1 minutes (SE0.5) of MVPA over 111 minutes (SE1.3) during the ASP. A threshold of 4600 steps provided high specificity (0.967) and adequate sensitivity (0.646) for discriminating children who achieved the 30 minutes of MVPA; 93% of the children were correctly classified. The total area under the curve was 0.919. Children accumulating 4600 steps were 25times more likely to accumulate 30 minutes of MVPA.


CONCLUSIONS
This step threshold will provide ASP leaders with an objective, low-cost, easy-to-use tool to monitor progress toward policy-related goals.
Dept of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
Michael W
MW
Beets
Aaron
A
Beighle
Matteo
M
Bottai
Laura
L
Rooney
Fallon
F
Tilley
D000293:Adolescent; D019985:Benchmarking; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013022:South Carolina; D013997:Time Factors; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*