Accelerometer Measured Level of Physical Activity Indoors and Outdoors During Preschool Time in Sweden and the United States.

The purpose of this study is to compare the physical level of activity of Swedish and American children in daycare as well as objectively investigate differences between indoor and outdoor activities for girls and boys by looking at their level of intensity and sedentary behaviour.

The study shows that on average the children were much more active outdoors than indoors, both at the American and Swedish daycare centres. On average the Swedish children spent 46% of their time outdoors, compared to 18% in Raleigh. Moreover, the study shows that the Swedish boys were significantly more outdoors than the girls, as they spent 56% of their time at the daycare centre outside, whereas the girls’ outdoor activities took up 38% of their time. In the US, the difference between boys and girls was not very big. Here, the girls spent 19% of their time outside, whereas the boys spent 17% of their time outside. The study shows that the intensity of the outdoor activities on average was significantly higher than the intensity of the indoor activities, and that this was the case for both countries.

A total of 50 children took part in the project; 26 boys and 24 girls with an average age of 52 months. The children were selected from four daycare centres; two from Raleigh in the US and two from Malmö in Sweden. However, the study does not state how many children took part from each daycare centre.The children were equipped with an elastic belt with an accelerometer that measures the level of activity of the children. The children wore the belts for five consecutive days. The children were observed during the day, and the researchers timed all outdoor and indoor activities throughout the day. Data material was analysed in the statistics software program SPSS.

Raustorp, A. et al. (2012). Accelerometer Measured Level of Physical Activity Indoors and Outdoors During Preschool Time in Sweden and the United States. Journal of Physical Activity & Health 9(6), 801-808.