Faculty of Education, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia.
Science and Research Centre Koper, Institute for Kinesiology Research, Koper, Slovenia.
Front Public Health. 2021 Jan 18;8:631141. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.631141. eCollection 2020.
Regular physical activity (PA) reduces the health risk of childhood obesity and associated chronic diseases as well as mental health problems. Since PA declines as children age as well with future generations it is of highest importance to intervene in school and out-of-school settings. Out-of-school periods affect children's PA as it is mainly left to the interest and motivation of their parents. We compared accelerometer-based PA patterns in 93 6- to 9-year old children assessed four times: before (May/June), during (August), and after (September) summer holidays and at a 1-year follow up (May/June). Before summer holidays children were assessed also for anthropometry and motor tests. During summer holidays overall PA decreased by 18% ( < 0.001), physical inactivity increased by 5.5% ( < 0.001), moderate PA decreased by 53% ( < 0.001) and moderate to vigorous PA decreased by 45% ( < 0.001) when compared to before summer holidays. Furthermore, overall PA remained diminished also after summer holidays by 8.8% ( = 0.001) but recovered to baseline values at 1-year follow up. About 30% of overall PA and moderate to vigorous PA decrease during summer holidays could be explained by children's fitness level as a greater decrease was found in children with better results in standing long jump and 300-meter running time. Our finding detects an alarming summer holiday decrease in children PA that should not be neglected in future studies and intervention designs.
定期进行身体活动（PA）可降低儿童肥胖症和相关慢性疾病以及心理健康问题的健康风险。由于随着儿童年龄的增长，PA 水平会下降，而且未来几代人的 PA 水平也会下降，因此在学校和校外环境中进行干预至关重要。校外时间会影响儿童的 PA，因为这主要取决于他们父母的兴趣和动机。我们比较了 93 名 6 至 9 岁儿童在四个时间点（五月/六月、八月、九月暑假期间和一年后随访，五月/六月）的基于加速度计的 PA 模式。在暑假之前，还对孩子们进行了人体测量和运动测试。在暑假期间，与暑假前相比，总体 PA 减少了 18%（<0.001），体力活动减少了 5.5%（<0.001），中度 PA 减少了 53%（<0.001），中等到剧烈 PA 减少了 45%（<0.001）。此外，与暑假前相比，暑假后总体 PA 仍减少了 8.8%（=0.001），但在一年后随访时恢复到基线值。暑假期间，总体 PA 和中等到剧烈 PA 减少了约 30%，这可以通过儿童的体能水平来解释，因为在跳远和 300 米跑步时间成绩更好的儿童中，PA 下降幅度更大。我们的发现表明，儿童 PA 在暑假期间大幅下降，这在未来的研究和干预设计中不容忽视。
