Chinese city children and youth's walking behavior

Although walking has been demonstrated as one of the best forms for promoting physical activity (PA), little is known about Chinese city children and youth's walking behavior. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess ambulatory PA behavior of Chinese city children and youth.

The daily steps of 2,751 children and youth (1,415 boys, 1,336 girls; aged 9 to 17 years old, M(age) = 154.78 +/- 44.63 months) from 11 cities in China were recorded using ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers for 7 consecutive days.

The most active walking day was on Friday (M +/- SD = 11,183 +/- 5,130 steps), followed by Monday (M +/- SD = 10,780 +/- 4,921), Thursday (M +/- SD = 10,705 +/- 4,607), Tuesday (M +/- SD = 10,687 +/- 5,038), Wednesday (M +/- SD = 10,428 +/- 4,697), Saturday (M +/- SD = 9,734 +/- 5,582), and Sunday (M +/- SD = 9,303 +/- 5,569). Participants walked more steps during weekdays (M +/- SD = 10,615 +/- 4,411) than they did during weekend days (M +/- SD = 9,444 +/- 5,224; t = 15.71, p < .01, d = 0.34); boys walked more steps (M +/- SD = 10,847 +/- 4,322) than did girls (M +/- SD = 9,938 +/- 4,282; t = 4.92, p < .01, d = 0.22). The most active age was 11 years old in boys (M +/- SD = 12,984 +/- 4,897) and 10 years old in girls (M +/- SD = 11,745 +/- 4,721), and older children walked fewer steps. The data suggest that depending on age (9 to 17 years old), a range of 5.71% to 35.73%, 29.70% to 56.65%, and 15.96% to 47.62% boys and 22.86% to 40.14%, 29.41% to 46.26%, and 12.94% to 40.14% girls met 3 different health-related criteria for daily steps, respectively.

Boys walked more than girls walked, but a majority of the Chinese city children and youth did not meet the recommended health-related steps/day.