Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Am J Prev Med. 2010 Jan;38(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2009.08.025.
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.
This study aims to assess awareness of physical activity levels among British school children aged 9-10 years and their parents.
Physical activity was measured using an accelerometer in a cross-sectional study of 1892 children (44% male; M age=10.3 years, SD=0.3) from 92 Norfolk schools (Sport, Physical Activity and Eating Behavior: Environmental Determinants in Young People [SPEEDY] study). Data were collected between April and July 2007 and analyzed in 2008. Inactive was defined as <60 minutes/day of moderate and vigorous physical activity. Agreement between physical activity perception (child- and parent-rated) and objective physical activity was assessed. Associations between biological (height, weight, fat mass index); parental (support, BMI, physical activity); and peer factors (support, objective physical activity) and child and parental physical activity awareness were studied using multinomial logistic regression.
In all, 39% of girls and 18% of boys were inactive. A total of 80% of parents of inactive children wrongly thought that their child was sufficiently active. In all, 40% of inactive children overestimated their physical activity level. Compared to parents who accurately described their children as inactive, parents who overestimated were more likely to have girls (p=0.005), to have a child with a lower fat mass index (p<0.001), or to report more parental and peer support (p=0.014 and p<0.001, respectively).
Most parents of inactive children wrongly consider their children to be sufficiently active; parents of children with a lower fat mass index appear to assume that their children are adequately active. Increasing awareness regarding health benefits of physical activity beyond weight control might help reverse misperceptions of physical activity levels and encourage behavior change.
增加儿童身体活动的干预措施收效有限。原因之一可能是儿童及其家长高估了儿童的身体活动水平，尽管关于这一主题的数据很少。
本研究旨在评估英国 9-10 岁儿童及其家长对身体活动水平的认识。
在一项横断面研究中，使用加速度计测量了 1892 名儿童（44%为男性；平均年龄=10.3 岁，标准差=0.3 岁）的身体活动情况，这些儿童来自诺福克的 92 所学校（体育、身体活动和饮食行为：年轻人的环境决定因素研究 [SPEEDY]）。数据于 2007 年 4 月至 7 月间收集，并于 2008 年进行分析。不活动定义为每天中等到剧烈身体活动时间<60 分钟。评估了身体活动感知（儿童和家长评定）与客观身体活动之间的一致性。使用多项逻辑回归分析了生物因素（身高、体重、体脂指数）；家长因素（支持、BMI、身体活动）；以及同伴因素（支持、客观身体活动）与儿童和家长身体活动意识之间的关系。
所有女孩中有 39%，男孩中有 18%为不活动者。不活动儿童的家长中，有 80%错误地认为他们的孩子活动量足够。所有不活动儿童中，有 40%高估了自己的身体活动水平。与准确描述孩子不活动的家长相比，高估孩子身体活动水平的家长更有可能有女孩（p=0.005），孩子的体脂指数较低（p<0.001），或者报告更多的家长和同伴支持（p=0.014 和 p<0.001）。
大多数不活动儿童的家长错误地认为他们的孩子活动量足够；体脂指数较低的孩子的家长似乎认为他们的孩子身体活动量足够。提高对身体活动除控制体重之外的健康益处的认识，可能有助于纠正对身体活动水平的错误认识，并鼓励行为改变。
