Levels of physical activity of a sample of 10-13 year old New Zealand children

Abstract

AIMS: To determine what proportion of a sample of 10 to 13 year old New Zealand children attained the Ministry of Health's physical activity guidelines. These guidelines recommend that children accumulate a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week. METHODS: The heart rates of sixty 10-13 year olds were monitored at one minute intervals, for twelve hours on three week days and one weekend day. For each day, the number of minutes when the subject's heart rate exceeded 139 beats per minutes (bpm) was determined. The proportion of subjects who accumulated at least 30 minutes of heart rates > 139 bpm on three of the four recording days was determined. These subjects were deemed to have met the physical activity guidelines. RESULTS: 53% of subjects met the minimum physical acivity guidelines. Boys spent significantly more of their time with their heart rates elevated above 139 bpm than girls. There was no significant difference between the number of children achieving the recommended guidelines and their school's decile ranking. CONCLUSION: There are indications that children's lives are becoming more sedentary due in part to the popularity of passive forms of leisure and the reduced incidence of active forms of transportation like walking or cycling to school. The low proportion of New Zealand children meeting the minimum physical activity guidelines is a cause for great concern.