Congratulations to Dr. Richard Larouche on his recent publication “Correlates of children’s physical activity: a Canadian multi-site study” just published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. The paper shows that each additional hour spent outdoors was associated with higher physical activity (PA) in boys (+769 steps per day; +3.7 min MVPA per day) and girls (+596 steps per day; +3.5 min·d−1). Boys’ PA declined with age (−500 steps per day; −3.7 min·d−1). Boys were less active if they had a long-standing injury/illness (−1862 steps per day; −3.7 min·d−1) or their parents reported driving to work (−835 steps per day; −4.4 min·d−1), were worried about traffic (−982 steps per day; −6.4 min·d−1), or about other people in their neighborhood (−1250 steps per day). Girls speaking neither English nor French at home were less active (−620 steps per day; −3.7 min·d−1). In girls, each degree Celsius increase in morning temperature was associated with 77 additional steps per day, and each kilometer increase in active school travel distance was associated with 0.5 more moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA minutes per day. Consistent with previous studies, the results suggest that PA interventions should aim to increase outdoor time. The observed gender differences in PA correlates suggest the need for a gender-sensitized approach to PA promotion.
Citation: Larouche R, Blanchette S, Faulkner G, Riazi N, Trudeau F, Tremblay MS. Correlates of children’s physical activity: a Canadian multi-site study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Jul 11.
