Probably the most active population in the world:accelerometer measurements of 72 school-children in Greenland

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Schnohr, Christina, Fuhr-Nielsen, Trine, Sørensen, Sarah O, Niclasen, Birgit, Larsen, Christina Viskum Lytken
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Female; Adolescent; Humans; Child; Male; Greenland/epidemiology; Exercise; Surveys and Questionnaires; Self Report; Accelerometry; Circumpolar Health; Greenland; greenlandic; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/probably-the-most-active-population-in-the-world(512c1f61-4a76-4f39-a6f6-c07c166aca15).html; https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2023.2289283; https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/376886164/Probably_the_most_active_population_in_the_world_accelerometer_measurements_of_72_school_children_in_Greenland.pdf

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. 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 ...