Do 8 to 12 yr-old italian children meet NASPE physical activity recommendations ?

Participation in physical activity (PA) during childhood can help to reduce the onset of risk factors associated with ill health. Recommendations\r\nfor healthy levels of PA for children have been established by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE\r\nguidelines, 2004: children should accumulate at least 60 min of moderate and vigorous PA on most if not all days of the week). Lack of\r\ninformation about Italian children has made it impossible to assess proportions of children meeting the recommendations. The aim of\r\nthis study was to objectively measure PA behaviour in a sample of 8 to 12 yr-old children in order to investigate if they fulfilled NASPE PA\r\nguidelines.\r\n16 healthy children (age, 9,1±1,2 yr; BMI, 19,8±4,6 kg/m2; RMR, 4406,8±1758,6 kjoule/d; VO2max, 39,9±8,2 ml/kg/min) were monitored\r\nduring a whole week in winter and in summer with a Actiheart (AH) monitor (Cambridge Neurotechnology, UK). The AH is directly attached\r\nto the chest with two standard ECG electrodes and it is able to measure acceleration, heart rate (HR), HR variability and ECG\r\nmagnitude for objectively measuring PA and inferring time spent in sedentary or light (SLPA, <3 METS) to moderate (MPA, 3-6 METS) and\r\nvigorous (VPA, >6 METS) intensity. Data presented provide a minimum of four days of 10-h valid recording per week (the choice of 4 d\r\nensures that at least 1 weekend day is included).\r\nData analysed through the Branched model showed that children significantly exceeded NASPE guidelines of 60 min of moderate-tovigorous\r\nPA (MVPA) both in winter (MVPA 143,4±67,9 min/day, p<0,001) and in summer (178,3±78,8 min/day, p<0,0001). However, a\r\nsignificant seasonal difference was detected especially for time spent in MPA (MPA: winter 132,2±62,8 min/day; summer 161,6±70,1\r\nmin/day, p<0,05). On the contrary, no significant differences appeared between weekly and weekend days (MVPA: weekly days\r\n160,3±86 min/day; weekend days 161,4±86,7 min/day, p=ns). Besides, the between intensity comparison revealed a significant higher\r\namount of time spent in moderate than in vigorous intensity (MPA 146,9±67,2 min/day; VPA 14±12,7 min/day, p<0,001).\r\nThe main finding of this study is that Actiheart data, taking intensity of activity into account, indicate that Italian young children significantly\r\nexceed the minimum activity standard of 60 min of accumulated MVPA per day. Although it is likely that all children should be encouraged\r\nto adopt an active lifestyle, it is unclear if 60 min of intermittent, accumulated PA are sufficient to gain health benefits or if it is favourable\r\n60 min of sustained PA. Taking into account seasonal differences, a suggestion could be to increase physical education hours\r\nduring school time.