Daily Weather and Children's Physical Activity Patterns

Teun Remmers*, Carel Thijs, Anna Timperio, Jo Salmon, Jenny Veitch, Stef P. J. Kremers, Nicola D. Ridgers

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Introduction: Understanding how the weather affects physical activity (PA) may help in the design, analysis, and interpretation of future studies, especially when investigating PA across diverse meteorological settings and with long follow-up periods. The present longitudinal study first aims to examine the influence of daily weather elements on intraindividual PA patterns among primary school children across four seasons, reflecting day-to-day variation within each season. Second, we investigate whether the influence of weather elements differs by day of the week (weekdays vs weekends), gender, age, and bodymass index. Method: PA data were collected by ActiGraph accelerometers for 1 wk in each of four school terms that reflect each season in southeast Australia. PA data from 307 children (age range 8.7-12.8 yr) were matched to daily meteorological variables obtained from the Australian Government" s Bureau of Meteorology (maximum temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, day length, and rainfall). Daily PA patterns and their association with weather elements were analyzed using multilevel linear mixed models. Results: Temperature was the strongest predictor of moderate and vigorous PA, followed by solar radiation and humidity. The relation with temperature was curvilinear, showing optimum PA levels at temperatures between 20 degrees C and 22 degrees C. Associations between weather elements on PA did not differ by gender, child" s age, or body mass index. Conclusions: This novel study focused on the influence of weather elements on intraindividual PA patterns in children. As weather influences cannot be controlled, knowledge of its effect on individual PApatternsmay help in the design of future studies, interpretation of their results, and translation into PA promotion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)922-929
Number of pages8
JournalMedicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
Volume49
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2017

Keywords

  • ACCELEROMETER
  • METEOROLOGY
  • WEATHER ELEMENTS
  • INTRAINDIVIDUAL
  • CHILD
  • MODERATION
  • SEASONAL-VARIATION
  • SEDENTARY BEHAVIOR
  • TIME
  • ADOLESCENTS
  • SCHOOL
  • PARTICIPATION
  • OVERWEIGHT
  • RAINFALL
  • IMPACT
  • YOUTH

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