Dispersion of daily physical activity behaviors in school-age children: A novel approach to measure patterns of physical activity.
Melissa M Klamm, Angela A Duck, Michael A Welsch and 6 others
PMID 34878735WHAT IT FOUND
A new way to measure how spread out a child's movement is during the day correlated with their total activity minutes.
It did not correlate with how much time they spent sitting. This method is not yet validated for clinical use.
Key findings
01The new movement dispersion metric significantly correlated with minutes of light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, but not with sedentary behavior.
02The study introduces this metric as a novel, unvalidated method that requires further research to confirm its utility.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was very small (19 children) and homogeneous, all from one elementary school, mostly female, and mostly Black. The formula for dispersion includes intensity counts, so its correlation with activity minutes may be a mathematical artifact rather than a true finding. The method is newly proposed and has not been validated for clinical use. The study did not know what types of activities the children were performing, only the accelerometer output.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this dispersion metric to assess patients or change practice. The correlation with activity levels may be a statistical artifact because intensity is built into the formula, and the method is unvalidated.