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Indoor versus outdoor time in preschoolers at child care

Pooja S Tandon1, Brian E Saelens, Chuan Zhou

  • 1Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. pooja@uw.edu

American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|December 21, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Light sensors and GPS accurately measure outdoor time in preschoolers, aiding health research. These methods offer a feasible and cost-effective way to quantify children's time spent outdoors.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Health
  • Pediatric Health
  • Measurement Science

Background:

  • Outdoor time is linked to health benefits, including increased physical activity.
  • Accurate measurement of outdoor time is crucial but challenging.
  • Understanding children's outdoor exposure is vital for public health.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the accuracy and validity of light-sensor and GPS devices for measuring outdoor time in 3-5-year-old children.
  • To compare device-based measurements with direct observation in a childcare setting.

Main Methods:

  • 45 preschoolers (mean age 4.5 years) wore accelerometers with light sensors and GPS devices.
  • Direct observation served as the gold standard for indoor/outdoor classification.
  • Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses determined device accuracy.

Main Results:

  • Light sensors and GPS showed moderate to high accuracy in distinguishing indoor from outdoor environments.
  • GPS demonstrated a higher area under the ROC curve (0.89) compared to light sensors (0.82).
  • Light sensors achieved 74% sensitivity and 86% specificity; GPS achieved 82% sensitivity and 88% specificity.

Conclusions:

  • Both light sensors and GPS are accurate tools for quantifying preschool children's outdoor time.
  • These technologies enhance the feasibility and reduce the cost of outdoor time measurement in research.
  • Findings support the use of these devices in studies investigating outdoor time and child health.
Abstract

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