RESEARCH ARTICLE
Patterns of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activities and daily Compliance with Guidelines for Youth
J. C. Ribeiro*, M. Sousa, C. Sá, P. Santos, P. Silva, L. Aires, J. Mota
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 2
First Page: 71
Last Page: 75
Publisher ID: TOSSJ-2-71
DOI: 10.2174/1875399X00902010071
Article History:
Received Date: 31/03/2009Revision Received Date: 08/06/2009
Acceptance Date: 08/06/2009
Electronic publication date: 13/07/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Physical inactivity is a well-documented risk factor for coronary heart disease and it is associated with increased risk for several chronic diseases. Current health-related physical activity recommendations for youth call for at least 60 min·d-1 of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities (MVPA) daily as part of their lifestyle. The aim of this study was to compare the compliance among boys and girls with 60 minutes of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activities (60MVPA) daily. A random sample of 210 (12-18 years) boys and girls was evaluated from Porto region. The following measurements were carried out: weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI), and PA levels (accelerometers). The study was conducted during 7 consecutive days. Our results showed that there was a difference in the compliance of 60MVPA between boys and girls, in both weekdays and weekend days (p<0.05). The compliance with PA guidelines for girls ranged between 19.4% (Saturday) and 70.6% (Friday) while in boys the data ranged between 47.7% (Sunday) and 84.6% (Friday). However, only 15% of boys and 7% of girls accomplished the 60MVPA criteria everyday.