title: Prevalence of New Zealand children and adolescents achieving current physical activity and television watching recommendations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aims were to investigate sex, ethnicity, and age differences in achieving daily step count and television (TV) watching recommendations in schoolchildren.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 615 children (n = 325) and adolescents (n = 290) aged 5 to 16 years. Activity was assessed over 5 days using pedometers; TV time was collected via parental proxy-report and self-report. Ethnic, sex, and age differences in step counts, TV time, and odds of meeting TV and step count recommendations were examined for weekdays, weekend days, and overall using generalized estimation equation modeling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, girls were more active than boys (P < .001). Adolescents were more active than children (P = .044), watched more TV (P = .005), and were less likely to meet TV watching recommendations (P = .004). Non-European children watched significantly more TV (P = .008), and were significantly less likely to meet TV recommendations than non-European children (P = .001). Participants watched more TV and accumulated less steps on weekend days than weekdays.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Multifaceted interventions focusing on both increasing activity and decreasing TV time are needed, especially on weekends. Children and girls may benefit more from activity interventions, while ethnic-specific interventions focusing on TV habits may be most efficacious for adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Melody
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oliver
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kuch
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McPhee
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schofield
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013690:Television; D013995:Time; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*