TY - JOUR

T1 - Probably the most active population in the world

T2 - accelerometer measurements of 72 school-children in Greenland

AU - Schnohr, Christina

AU - Fuhr-Nielsen, Trine

AU - Sørensen, Sarah O

AU - Niclasen, Birgit

AU - Larsen, Christina Viskum Lytken

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Physical activity is the most important lifestyle factor to contribute to a healthy early life. International recommendations are that children should be vigorously physically active for at least 1 h per day, and in Greenland, authorities have claimed a goal of being the world's most active population. Since 1994, the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) has measured physical activity among school-children in Greenland by questionnaire data, but the measurement properties of self-reported data in comparison to more objectively measured accelerometer data are unknown. The present paper describes the first study using clinical measures of physical activity among Greenlandic youth. Seventy-two school-children (56% girls) with a mean age of 12 years (range 25%; 75% was 11.5; 12.25) wore accelerometers for seven consecutive days, and data produced significant and informative findings for both practice and future research. Fifty-two per cent of the school-children met the international recommendations of being physically active >1 h per day, when measured by accelerometers, but self-reported data reported a prevalence of 10% meeting the recommendations. A majority of this sample of Greenlandic school-children lives up to international recommendations, which indicates that the goal of being the world's most active population is within reach.

AB - Physical activity is the most important lifestyle factor to contribute to a healthy early life. International recommendations are that children should be vigorously physically active for at least 1 h per day, and in Greenland, authorities have claimed a goal of being the world's most active population. Since 1994, the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) has measured physical activity among school-children in Greenland by questionnaire data, but the measurement properties of self-reported data in comparison to more objectively measured accelerometer data are unknown. The present paper describes the first study using clinical measures of physical activity among Greenlandic youth. Seventy-two school-children (56% girls) with a mean age of 12 years (range 25%; 75% was 11.5; 12.25) wore accelerometers for seven consecutive days, and data produced significant and informative findings for both practice and future research. Fifty-two per cent of the school-children met the international recommendations of being physically active >1 h per day, when measured by accelerometers, but self-reported data reported a prevalence of 10% meeting the recommendations. A majority of this sample of Greenlandic school-children lives up to international recommendations, which indicates that the goal of being the world's most active population is within reach.

KW - Female

KW - Adolescent

KW - Humans

KW - Child

KW - Male

KW - Greenland/epidemiology

KW - Exercise

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Self Report

KW - Accelerometry

U2 - 10.1080/22423982.2023.2289283

DO - 10.1080/22423982.2023.2289283

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38060629

VL - 82

JO - International Journal of Circumpolar Health

JF - International Journal of Circumpolar Health

SN - 1239-9736

IS - 1

M1 - 2289283

ER -