Physical activity in the recess of childhood education: A pilot study using Garmin Vivofit Jr wristbands

Abstract

Physical inactivity and obesity have important implications for health. Achieve 60 minutes per day of moderate physical activity (MPA) or vigorous is a recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) for children aged between 5 and 17 years. The school environment can be a generator of physical activity (PA) since early childhood education. The purpose of this study is to analyse the minutes of PA and its intensity in schoolchildren of 5 years during recess and to what extent its favours is reaching the recommendations of daily PA promoted by WHO. By monitoring 18 children for 8 days using the Garmin Vivofit Jr. wristband, were obtained the minutes of MPA and the number of steps (NS), disaggregated by time. The daily average of MPA was 87±16 minutes and 9100±1807 NS. During recess, schoolchildren reached an average of 16±4 minutes and 1666±370 NS. Statistically significant differences were found, both in minutes of MPA and in NS in favour of children (p < .001) and 50% more in days without rain compared with rainy days (p < .001). There were no significant differences in MPA (p = .20) or NS (p = .16) depending on the semester of birth. In the recess in the infantile age it reached approximately 25% of the MPA recommended by the WHO.