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Seasonality in swimming and cycling: Exploring a limitation of accelerometer based studies

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Harrison 
atkin, A 
van sluijs, E 
Jones, A 

Abstract

Accelerometer-based studies of children's physical activity have reported seasonal patterns in activity levels. However, the inability of many accelerometers to detect activity while the wearer is swimming or cycling may introduce a bias to the estimation of seasonality if participation in these activities are themselves seasonally patterned. We explore seasonal patterns in children's swimming and cycling among a sample of 7–8 year olds (N = 591) participating in the Millennium Cohort Study, UK. Participating children wore an accelerometer for one week on up to five occasions over the year and their parents completed a diary recording daily minutes spent swimming and cycling. Both swimming and cycling participation showed seasonal patterns, with 2.7 (SE 0.8) more minutes swimming and 5.7 (0.7) more minutes cycling performed in summer compared to winter. Adding swimming and cycling time to accelerometer-determined MVPA increased the summer-winter difference in MVPA from 16.6 (1.6) to 24.9 min. The seasonal trend in swimming and cycling appears to follow the same pattern as accelerometer-measured MVPA. Studies relying solely on accelerometers may therefore underestimate seasonal differences in children's activity.

Description

Keywords

physical activity, seasonality, children, Millennium Cohort study

Journal Title

Preventive Medicine Reports

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2211-3355
2211-3355

Volume Title

7

Publisher

Elsevier
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (087636/Z/08/Z)
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/G007462/1)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/7)
Medical Research Council (MR/K023187/1)
The fourth sweep of the MCS was funded by grants to Professor Heather Joshi, former director of the study, from the Economic and Social Research Council and a consortium of government funders. The authors acknowledge the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, for the use of these data; the UK Data Service for making them available; and the MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health (grant reference G0400546), Institute of Child Health, University College London, for creating the accelerometer data resource, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant reference 084686/Z/08/A). The work of Andrew J Atkin, Flo Harrison, and Esther M F van Sluijs was supported, wholly or in part, by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence (RES-590-28-0002). Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Department of Health, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The work of Esther MF van Sluijs was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/7).
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