title: CANPLAY study: Secular trends in steps/day amongst 5-19year-old Canadians between 2005 and 2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Canadian Physical Activity Levels Among Youth (CANPLAY) study collected pedometer data from eight surveys between 2005 and 2014, making it a unique database of objective population physical activity surveillance. The purpose of this study was to describe secular physical activity trends for 5-19year olds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Canadian children from nationally representative samples (10,000 recruited, n≅5500 per survey) were mailed a pedometer kit, asked to wear the pedometer for 7 consecutive days, log steps daily, then return the log by mail. Weighted medians and prevalence estimates were calculated. Trends were tested by χ(2) test of independence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An overall median of 10,935 steps/day was taken by Canadian children 5-19years of age (n=43,806) across the eight surveys. Steps/day increased between 2005-06 and 2007-08, then decreased in 2012-14. The prevalence of taking sufficient steps/day (defined as ≥10,000 steps/day for 5year olds, ≥13,000 steps/day for 6-11year-old boys; ≥11,000 steps/day for 6-11year-old girls; and ≥10,000 steps/day for 12-19year olds;) also increased then decreased over time, whereas the prevalence of accumulating <7000 steps/day generally increased over time. Trends were significant for boys, girls and each age group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CANPLAY surveillance system provided comparable data at multiple time points over 9years. An overall shift in the distribution of steps/day towards a less active lifestyle occurred between 2005-06 and 2012-14 for boys, girls and each age group. This provides evidence that the national policy goal to increase children's steps/day by 2015 has not been met.
authors.affiliation: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K2P 0J2, Canada. Electronic address: ccameron@cflri.ca.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.affiliation: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K2P 0J2, Canada; School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: ccraig@cflri.ca.
authors.forename: Cora L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.affiliation: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K2P 0J2, Canada; School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: adrian.bauman@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bauman
authors.affiliation: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K2P 0J2, Canada; Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9258, USA; Walking Behaviour Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA. Electronic address: ctudorlocke@umass.edu.
authors.forename: Catrine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tudor-Locke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D040361:Healthy People Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Data collection; Exercise; Surveillance; Walking