The trend and structure of adolescents’ weekly step count in the context of the Polish school environment

Abstract

Introduction and objective Weekly physical activity (PA) in adolescents is significantly correlated with the educational programme and school environment, where the basis of healthy work habits and a healthy lifestyle is laid. The aim of the study was to identify the differences in the trend and the structure of the weekly step count in adolescent boys and girls in the context of the Polish school environment. Material and methods A total of 930 boys and 1,354 girls aged 15–19 years from 64 secondary schools in the Katowice region participated. The research was conducted between 2011–2018. For the objective monitoring of weekly PA, Yamax Digiwalker SW-700 pedometers were used. Results Between 2011–2014 and 2015–2018, no significant differences were observed in step counts on an average week day, school day, or weekend day. This means that the level of PA, expressed as daily step count, did not decrease between the two 4-year periods. On average, boys performed 10,799 steps/day, while girls performed 10,130 steps/day. The recommendation of 11,000 steps/day was achieved by 42.2% of boys and 35.3% of girls. A significant decrease by 8.6 percentage points in the achievement of 11,000 steps/day between the two 4-year periods was observed only in boys. Conclusions It is positive that in the 8-year monitoring of PA, there was no significant decrease in the average steps/day for Polish boys and girls. However, most boys and girls did not meet the 11,000 steps/day recommendation. Both boys and girls were most physically active on Friday and least physically active on Sunday.

Keywords

• healthy lifestyle
• physical activity
• recommendation
• adolescent behaviour
• environment