A REVIEW OF THE DAILY STEP COUNTS OF CHILDREN ON WEEKDAYS AND WEEKENDS

written by Timothy A Brusseau, The College at Brockport (biography)

Since the publication of the Rowlands, Eston, and Ingledew (1997) study, the pedometer has become an acceptable means of measuring physical activity (PA) levels that has repeatedly shown that it can produce reliable and valid scores, even with children (Trost, Pate, Freedson, Sallis, & Taylor, 2000). Over the last decade the pedometer has become a popular tool for measuring PA.

As a result of its low cost and ease of use, pedometers are used frequently to assess children's PA in field settings (i.e. Brusseau, Kulinna, Tudor-Locke, Ferry, van der Mars, & Darst, 2011; Vincent & Pangrazi, 2002). Research studies continue to accumulate demonstrating the utility of the pedometer to objectively measure childrens' activity patterns.

Multiple recent reviews of pedometer-determined PA studies (Beets, Bornstein, Beighle, Cardinal, & Morgan, 2010; Tudor-Locke, McClain, Hart, Sisson, & Washington, 2008) have found well over 50 studies that have determined free-living activity patterns of children. Very few of these studies have explored differences between weekday and weekend step values. Those that have suggest varied and conflicting findings.

Seven studies have examined pedometer-determined PA of youth during weekdays compared to weekend days. Figure 1 illustrates differences between weekdays and weekend days across studies. The studies examined students ranging in age from 6 to 18, and ranged in number of participants from 44 to over 1,500.

Duncan and colleagues (2006) examined the physical activity of 1,115 (ages 5-13) children from New Zealand. Children were monitored for two weekend days and three weekdays. During the weekdays, boys accumulated an average of 16,132 steps/day and girls averaged 14,124 steps/day. This was significantly different from the weekend days, where boys accumulated an average of 12,702 steps and girls accumulated an average of 11,158 steps.

Rowe, Mahar, Raedke, and Lohr (2004) also reported significant differences in a study of 210 children between the ages of 10-14 years. They found that these children (did not report by sex) accumulated an average of 9,504 steps/day during the weekdays and 9,005 steps/day during the weekend. More recently, Duncan, Duncan, and Schofield (2008) examined the physical activity patterns of over 1,500 female New Zealand children and youth. This study found that girls averaged 12,597 steps per weekday and 9,528 steps per weekend day. They found that children of European descent were the most active on weekends, as compared to weekdays, and that both weekday and weekend steps/day generally decreased as the children advanced in age.

This study also explored the effects of socioeconomic status on the PA patterns of this population. The results suggest that girls from a low socioeconomic (SES) home averaged 8,724 steps per weekend days compared to 10,410 and 9,871 steps per weekend day for middle and high SES students, respectively.

Cardon and Bourdeaudhuij (2004) did not analyze the PA data by sex, but found that 92 children (ages 6-12) accumulated an average of 15,508 steps during weekdays, and 14,840 during the weekend days over six consecutive days in Flanders, Belgium. Flohr, Todd, and Tudor-Locke (2006) did not find a significant difference between weekday and weekend day PA in 44 twelve year old youth. Boys accumulated an average of 11,980 steps on Physical Education days and 13,159 steps on health days, and girls accumulated an average of 9,978 steps on health days and 10,660 on Physical Education days.

The differences between health and Physical Education days may be attributed to varying participation in after-school activities. This is compared to an average of 13,000 steps for boys and 10,455 steps for girls during the weekend days. The girls in this study were the lone sub-sample to be more active on the weekend days; however, there was not a reason suggested for this result.

Brusseau, Kulinna, Tudor-Locke, van der Mars, & Darst, (In press) compared the weekday and weekend steps counts of three hundred and sixty-three children (8-11 years old) from six Southwestern USA elementary schools. Results indicated that during weekdays, the fourth and fifth grade children averaged 13,196 ± 3,334 and 11,295 ± 3,168 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. This is compared to a weekend average of 7,660 ± 4,647 steps/day (boys) and 7,317 ± 4,062 steps/day (girls).

This study also examined steps/day on Physical Education and non Physical Education Days. Children were significantly more active on physical education days, averaging 12,979 steps/day (14,197 ± 4,697 steps/day for boys and 12,058 ± 3,772 steps/day for girls), compared to non-physical education school days, when they accumulated 11,809 steps/day (12,788 ± 3,600 steps/day for boys and 11,047 ± 3,382 steps/day for girls). They also suggested that children having Physical Education 2 or more days per week averaged greater steps/day than students with only 1 Physical Education day/week.

In a study examining the weekday and weekend steps of Polish adolescents (average age of 17.9 years; Groffik, Fromel, & Pelclova, 2008) the youth averaged between 12,138-12,609 (boys) and 12,523-13,267 (girls) on weekdays. On weekends these youth averaged 8,381-8,928 and 9,311-10,283 for boys and girls, respectively. This group of young people averaged approximately 3,200-4,300 and 3000-3,200 steps/day less on weekend days for boys and girls, respectively.

Based on these findings, children and youth are generally more active on week days than weekend days. This supports previous literature suggesting that children are less active on weekend days compared to week days (e. g. Gavarry, Giacomoni, Bernard, Seymat, & Falgairette, 2003). Further, few children and youth appear to be meeting the daily recommended steps/day (13,000 and 11,000 for boys and girls, respectively) on weekend days set forth by the President's Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Program (President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, 2001). It would also appear that most children and youth need increased physical activity programming and interventions on weekend days.

REFERENCES

Dr. Tim Brusseau is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies, & Physical Education at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. Dr. Brusseau's teaching specialty is secondary physical education and coaching. His research interests are related to understanding children and youth physical activity and interventions targeting their physical activity.

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