Decrease in weekend number of steps in adolescents

摘要

Background : The activities with which young people spend the weekends do not support the prevalence of an active and healthy lifestyle enough. There are research evidence-based results that physical activity performed during weekend days is lower than physical activity in weekdays. Objective : This study aims to find out to what extent young people achieve recommended levels of physical activity on weekends and to identify possible differences with regard to nationality or gender. Methods : Research was realised between 2008 and 2011 at randomly selected schools in the Czech Republic and in Poland. The week long step count monitoring had 786 participants in the Czech Republic and 673 participants in Poland aged 15-16 years. The online system INDARES was used to answer questionnaires and gather data from pedometers. Results : Results showed that young people on average record lower numbers of steps on weekends compared to schooldays (difference is 1356 step/day; F(1, 1458) = 147.61; p ≈ .000; ω2 = .232***). The most critical day of the week is Sunday. The simplified recommended amount of 11,000 steps/day is achieved by 65.93% of Czech boys and 64.73% of Czech girls (49.28% of Polish boys and 42.92% of Polish girls) on schooldays, whereas only by 42.59% of Czech boys and 43.8% of Czech girls (40.1% of Polish boys and 39.27% of Polish girls) on weekends. There were no significant differences between boys and girls in terms of average number of steps per day. Conclusion : Reducing the weekend would certainly not secure effective advancement of physical activity and healthy lifestyle among young people, yet a change of their values and creating a habit of spending weekends actively is imperative. Use of the internet mainly in boys and use of pedometers mainly in girls are some of the tools to stimulate physical activity and healthy lifestyle in youth.