Day-dependent step-count patterns and their persistence over 3 years in 8-10-year-old children: the LOOK project.

Background: Physical activity in children is known to be generally lower at weekends but whether systematic day-to-day differences exist throughout the week is unclear.

Aim: To determine if weekly patterns of pedometer-assessed physical activity (PPA) exist in elementary school-aged Australian boys and girls and whether they persist over 3 years.

Subjects And Methods: Seven-day pedometer measurements were recorded from 389 boys and 387 girls of initial age 8.

Reformulation of BMI and percent body fat to remove the height bias in 8-year-olds.

BMI and percent body fat (%BF) are both related to height (Ht) in prepubertal children, so may misrepresent childhood adiposity, especially in tall or short children. We sought to construct replacement functions for BMI and %BF that are independent of Ht. Fat mass (FM) was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, together with Ht and body mass (BM) in 746 healthy boys and girls aged 8 years (0.