Kretschmer, Luke;
Salali, Gul Deniz;
Andersen, Lars Bo;
Hallal, Pedro C;
Northstone, Kate;
Sardinha, Luís B;
Dyble, Mark;
... International Children’s Accelerometry Database (ICAD) Collabor; + view all
(2023)
Gender differences in the distribution of children’s physical activity: evidence from nine countries.
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
, 20
, Article 103. 10.1186/s12966-023-01496-0.
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Abstract
Background: Physical activity in childhood is thought to influences health and development. Previous studies have found that boys are typically more active than girls, yet the focus has largely been on differences in average levels or proportions above a threshold rather than the full distribution of activity across all intensities. We thus examined differences in the distribution of physical activity between girls and boys in a multi-national sample of children. // Methods: We used the harmonised International Children Accelerometry Database (ICAD), including waist-worn accelerometry data from 15,461 individuals (Boys: 48.3%) from 9 countries. Employing Generalised Additive Models of Location, Shape, and Scale (GAMLSS) we investigated gender differences in the distribution of individuals, including comparisons of variability (SD) and average physical activity levels (mean and median) and skewness. We conducted this analysis for each activity intensity (Sedentary, Light, and Moderate-to-Vigorous (MVPA)) and a summary measure (counts per minute (CPM)). // Results: Sizable gender differences in the distribution of activity were found for moderate to vigorous activity and counts per minute, with boys having higher average levels (38% higher mean volumes of MVPA, 20% higher CPM), yet substantially more between-person variability (30% higher standard deviation (SD) for MVPA, 17% higher SD for CPM); boys’ distributions were less positively skewed than girls. Conversely, there was little to no difference between girls and boys in the distribution of sedentary or light-intensity activity. // Conclusions: Inequality in activity between girls and boys was driven by MVPA. The higher mean volumes of MVPA in boys occurred alongside greater variability. This suggests a need to consider the underlying distribution of activity in future research; for example, interventions which target gender inequality in MVPA may inadvertently lead to increased inequality within girls.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Gender differences in the distribution of children’s physical activity: evidence from nine countries |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12966-023-01496-0 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-023-01496-0 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | Physical activity, Childhood, Accelerometer, Gender, GAMLSS, ICAD, ALSPAC |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177091 |
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