Physical activity awareness of British adolescents.

Objectives: To assess adolescent physical activity (PA) awareness and to investigate associations with biologic and psychosocial factors.

Design: Cross-sectional study from November 1, 2005, through July 31, 2007 (the ROOTS study).

Setting: Population-based sample recruited from Cambridgeshire and Suffolk schools (United Kingdom).

Physical Activity Awareness of British Adolescents.

Objective: To assess adolescent PA awareness and investigate associations with biological and psychosocial factors.

Design: Cross-sectional from November 2005 to July 2007 (ROOTS study).

Setting: Population-based sample recruited via Cambridgeshire and Suffolk schools (UK).

The impact of rainfall and school break time policies on physical activity in 9-10 year old British children: a repeated measures study.

Background: The weather may be a driver of seasonal patterns in children's physical activity (PA). A better understanding of the relationships between weather and PA may help increase children's PA. This study aims to examine the association between PA and rainfall in 9-10 year old children, and how it may be modified by school policies.

Determinants of change in physical activity in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

Context: Data are available on correlates of physical activity in children and adolescents, less is known about the determinants of change. This review aims to systematically review the published evidence regarding determinants of change in physical activity in children and adolescents.

Evidence Acquisition: Prospective quantitative studies investigating change in physical activity in children and adolescents aged 4-18 years were identified from seven databases (to November 2010): PubMed, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Ovid MEDLINE, SPORTDdiscus, Embase, and Web of Knowledge.

Environmental correlates of adiposity in 9-10 year old children: considering home and school neighbourhoods and routes to school.

The rapid speed of the recent rise in obesity rates suggest environmental causes. There is therefore a need to determine which components of the environment may be contributing to this increase. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the associations between adiposity and the characteristics of areas around homes, schools and routes to school among 1995 9-10 year old boys and girls in Norfolk, UK.

School level correlates with adiposity in 9-10 year old children.

We examined the associations between the physical, social, and policy environments of schools and adiposity in 9-10 year old children in Norfolk, UK. The relationships between 56 school-level variables and Fat Mass Index (FMI; fat mass (kg)/height (m(2))) were investigated among 1724 well characterised children from 92 schools in this cross-sectional study. After stepwise removal of variables from multilevel linear regression models stratified by gender, only three variables were significantly associated with FMI.

The influence of distance to school on the associations between active commuting and physical activity.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the associations between active commuting behavior, levels of physical activity and distance to school in 9-10 year old children. Participants were children (n = 1824) who took part in the SPEEDY study (Sport, Physical activity and Eating behavior: Environmental Determinants in Young people). For both boys and girls, significant positive associations were observed between walking to school and physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during weekday journey times (8-9 am and 3-4 pm), and the size of association also became stronger with increasing distance from school.

Local food outlets, weight status, and dietary intake: associations in children aged 9-10 years.

Background: The rising prevalence of childhood obesity is a key public health issue worldwide. Limited evidence suggests that there may be interactions between environmental factors at a neighborhood level and the development of obesity, with the availability and accessibility of food outlets being potentially important.

Purpose: To examine how the weight status and dietary intake of 1669 children aged 9-10 years was associated with neighborhood food outlets in a cross-sectional study.

Family and home correlates of children's physical activity in a multi-ethnic population: the cross-sectional Child Heart and Health Study in England (CHASE).

Background: The influence of the family and home environment on childhood physical activity (PA) and whether this differs between ethnic groups remains uncertain. This paper investigates associations between family and home factors and childhood PA in a multi-ethnic population and explores whether associations differ between ethnic groups.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 9-10 year-old schoolchildren, in which PA was objectively measured by Actigraph GT1 M accelerometers for ≤7 days to estimate average activity counts per minute (CPM).

Diet quality is independently associated with weight status in children aged 9-10 years.

Although energy imbalance is key to the development of childhood obesity, the association between different dietary components, reflected in diet quality scores, and children's weight status has not been extensively studied. The current study determined if diet quality, characterized according to 3 predefined scores, was associated with weight status in a population-based sample of 9- to 10-y-old British children, independently of factors previously associated with weight status. In a cross-sectional study of 1700 children (56% girls), data from 4-d food diaries were used to calculate 3 diet quality scores modified to be reflective of children's diets: the Diet Quality Index (DQI), Healthy Diet Indicator (HDI), and Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS).

Does birth weight influence physical activity in youth? A combined analysis of four studies using objectively measured physical activity.

Animal models suggest growth restriction in utero leads to lower levels of motor activity. Furthermore, individuals with very low birth weight report lower levels of physical activity as adults. The aim of this study was to examine whether birth weight acts as a biological determinant of physical activity and sedentary time.

An investigation of patterns of children's sedentary and vigorous physical activity throughout the week.

Background: Participation in higher intensity activity (i.e. vigorous physical activity [VPA]) appears more consistently associated with lower adiposity, unfortunately little is known about the nature and patterns of VPA participation in children.

Environmental and psychological correlates of older adult's active commuting.

Purpose: This study explored the environmental and psychological correlates of active commuting in a sample of adults from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer Norfolk cohort.

Methods: Members of the cohort who were in employment, lived within 10 km of work, and did not report a limitation that precluded walking were included in this analysis. Psychological factors, perceptions of the neighborhood environment and travel mode to work were reported using questionnaires.

Overestimation of physical activity level is associated with lower BMI: a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Poor recognition of physical inactivity may be an important barrier to healthy behaviour change, but little is known about this phenomenon. We aimed to characterize a high-risk population according to the discrepancies between objective and self-rated physical activity (PA), defined as awareness.

Methods: An exploratory cross-sectional analysis of PA awareness using baseline data collected from 365 ProActive participants between 2001 and 2003 in East Anglia, England.

School-level correlates of physical activity intensity in 10-year-old children.

Purpose: Little is known about school environmental factors that promote or inhibit activity, especially from studies using objective measures in large representative samples. We therefore aimed to study associations between activity intensities and physical and social school environmental factors.

Methods: A population-based sample of 1 908 British children (SPEEDY study), mean age 10.

Changes in children's physical activity over 12 months: longitudinal results from the SPEEDY study.

Objective: We measured physical activity changes among 10-year-old British children over 12 months and assessed biological and demographic determinants.

Methods: Physical activity was measured with accelerometers (counts per minute) over ≥3 days at baseline and 1 year later in a prospective study of 844 children (41.6% male; mean±SD baseline age: 10.

Breakfast consumption and physical activity in British adolescents.

Studies show an inverse relationship between breakfast frequency and weight gain. This may reflect poor eating habits generally and associated low physical activity (PA) or direct impacts of breakfast on mechanisms leading to lethargy and reduced PA. The relationship between breakfast frequency and PA is inconclusive.

Family dog ownership and levels of physical activity in childhood: findings from the Child Heart and Health Study in England.

Dog ownership is associated with higher physical activity levels in adults; whether this association occurs in children is unknown. We used accelerometry to examine physical activity levels in 2065 children aged 9 to 10 years. Children from dog-owning families spent more time in light or moderate to vigorous physical activity and recorded higher levels of activity counts per minute (25; 95% confidence interval [CI]=6, 44) and steps per day (357; 95% CI=14, 701) than did children without dogs.

School environments and physical activity: The development and testing of an audit tool.

The aim of this study was to develop, test, and employ an audit tool to objectively assess the opportunities for physical activity within school environments. A 44 item tool was developed and tested at 92 primary schools in the county of Norfolk, England, during summer term of 2007. Scores from the tool covering 6 domains of facility provision were examined against objectively measured hourly moderate to vigorous physical activity levels in 1868 9-10 year old pupils attending the schools.

Who will increase their physical activity? Predictors of change in objectively measured physical activity over 12 months in the ProActive cohort.

Background: The aim was to identify predictors of change in objectively measured physical activity over 12 months in the ProActive cohort to improve understanding of factors influencing change in physical activity.

Methods: ProActive is a physical activity promotion trial that took place in Eastern England (1999-2004). 365 offspring of people with type 2 diabetes underwent measurement of physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) using heart rate monitoring, fitness, and anthropometric and biochemical status at baseline and 1 year (n = 321).

Invited commentary: comparing physical activity across countries--current strengths and weaknesses.

Physical activity is thought to be important for various health outcomes, but population levels are suspected to be low. There is a lack of large-scale comparable data with which to assess temporal trends and make between-population comparisons. Continued increases in the use of objective monitoring, especially in longitudinal studies, would be very valuable in public health research, and both self-reported and objective data may help to start developing explanations regarding any observed population differences.

Randomised controlled trial of the effects of physical activity feedback on awareness and behaviour in UK adults: the FAB study protocol [ISRCTN92551397].

Background: While there are increasing data implicating poor recognition of physical inactivity as a potential barrier to healthy behaviour change, the efficacy of feedback to promote physical activity is uncertain. Using a randomised controlled trial nested within a population-based cohort study, we plan to test three variations of physical activity feedback against a control group. Our primary objective is to assess the efficacy of physical activity feedback in promoting physical activity behaviour change.

Neighborhood, route, and school environments and children's active commuting.

Background: Walking and cycling to school represent an opportunity for children to achieve regular physical activity. These behaviors may be influenced by characteristics of the environment around homes and schools, yet few studies have quantified the potential associations between these two sets of factors.

Purpose: This study aims to assess whether objectively measured characteristics of the neighborhood, route, and school environments are associated with active commuting to school among children, and it explores whether distance acts as a moderator in this association.

Perception versus reality awareness of physical activity levels of British children.

Background: Interventions to increase children's physical activity have had limited success. One reason may be that children and their parents overestimate children's levels of physical activity, although there is a small amount of data on this topic.

Purpose: This study aims to assess awareness of physical activity levels among British school children aged 9-10 years and their parents.