Objective Measurement of Physical Activity Attributed to a Park-Based Afterschool Program

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Pediatric Exercise Science
• Community Health Programs

Background:

• Only 24% of US youth meet physical activity guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Community programs offer physical activity opportunities for underresourced minority youth.
• Limited research uses accelerometry data to evaluate these programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To objectively assess youth physical activity during participation versus non-participation days in a park-based afterschool program.
• To determine the impact of a community program on physical activity levels in underserved youth.

Main Methods:

• 66 youth (mean age 10.2 years) wore Fitbit devices for 10 days across 7 park sites.
• Repeated-measures multilevel models analyzed the relationship between program attendance and physical activity (moderate to vigorous activity minutes, step counts).
• Models adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, poverty, and park clustering.

Main Results:

• Youth had significantly more moderate to vigorous physical activity minutes (25.33 min/day) on program days.
• Youth also took significantly more steps per day (4067.8 steps) when attending the program.
• These increases were statistically significant (P < .01 for activity, P < .001 for steps).

Conclusions:

• Park-based afterschool programs can effectively increase physical activity in underserved youth.
• These programs show potential for helping youth meet daily physical activity recommendations.
• Objective accelerometry data supports the benefits of community-based physical activity interventions.