Stable physical activity tracking during children's guided active play.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric exercise science
• Childhood physical activity
• Behavioral tracking

Background:

• Physical activity (PA) generally declines throughout childhood.
• Tracking of PA becomes less reliable in later childhood due to varied behaviors across settings.
• Instability in PA tracking is linked to differing PA behaviors in various environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the stability of age-related physical activity (PA) in children aged 7 to 11 years.
• To assess PA tracking over a 12-month interval during self-paced guided active play (GAP) sessions.
• To determine if GAP can provide a stable measure of children's PA.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-five children from community camps participated over two consecutive years.
• PA was measured using accelerometers during 1-hour GAP sessions twice weekly.
• Energy expenditure (EE) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were quantified; tracking assessed via Spearman coefficients (r) and Kappa (k) scores.

Main Results:

• Strong tracking for overall PA (EE) with r = 0.88 and moderate agreement (k = 0.54) over 1 year.
• Moderate tracking for moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) with r = 0.54 and k = 0.47.
• High PA (EE) tracking coefficients observed at ages 7, 8, 10, and 11 years, with a dip at age 9.

Conclusions:

• Age-related physical activity tracking is stable in children during self-paced guided active play (GAP).
• GAP provides a reliable measure for assessing children's physical activity levels over time.
• Guided active play (GAP) should be considered for pediatric PA intervention strategies to enhance health and fitness.