Assessment of Daily Steps, Physical Activity and Activity Coefficient of the Elementary School Children in the Rural Area / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study was to assess the daily steps, physical activities and activity coefficient of the elementary school children in the rural area. Body weight, height and daily steps were measured and one-day activity diaries were collected by interviewing children. The average age of the subjects was 9.96+/-1.02 years. Average height, weight, obesity index, body fat and muscle of subjects were 136.2+/-8.9 cm, 35.2+/-8.5 kg, 99.6+/-18.8%, 22.9+/-8.5% and 35.8+/-6.0%, respectively. The average daily steps of the subjects was 17,584 and daily steps (19,314) of 3rd grade students was significantly higher than that (15,712) of 5th grade children. But there was no significant difference in daily steps and activity coefficients between boys and girls. Daily steps (23,347) of exercise group showed the significantly higher than that (16,144) of nonexercise group. Gender and grade of subjects did not have significant influence on activity coefficients, but there was a significant difference in activity coefficient on weekdays between the exercise group (1.82+/-0.30) and non-exercise group (1.50+/-0.21). Analysis of variance revealed stronger associations between daily steps and body fat (%) than between daily steps and BMI. Daily steps showed significant negative correlation with body fat (%) measured using two methods r =-0.321 and r = -0.365, respectively. Activity coefficient was significantly correlated (r = 0.436) with daily steps, thus increasing daily steps can prevent and treat childhood obesity by increasing the energy expenditure. The higher activity coefficients (weekday 1.56, weekend 1.53) of the subjects was caused by the fact that rural students spent more time outside and enjoyed stronger activities than urban students. The results of this study can be used to estimate energy requirements for Korean children based on exercise levels and living areas.

Assessment of Daily Steps, Physical Activities and Activity Coefficient of Policemen who Do Shift-Work

The purpose of this study was to assess the daily steps, physical activities and activity coefficient of policemen (average age: 31.5 +/- 5.1 years) who do shift work. Body weight, height and daily steps were measured and one-day activity diary was collected by interviewing with policemen. Average height, body weight, BMI, body fat (%) and muscles (%) of subjects were 173.1 +/- 5.2 cm, 73.7 +/- 9.7 kg, 24,6 kg/m2, 15.5 +/- 1.9% and 37.3 +/- 5.8%, respectively. The average daily numbers of steps were found to be 9,812 steps/day on day shift duty and 10,888 steps/day on night shift duty and 6,551 steps/day on holiday duty. Hourly step rates on day shift, night shift and holiday came to 1946 steps/hr, 2,130 steps/ hr and 1,318 steps/hr, respectively. Activity coefficient (1.75) in night shift of the subjects was the highest and activity coefficient (1.52) in day shift was significantly higher than that (1.31) in holiday (p < 0.05). The rate of expending time for very light activity in holiday (91.5%) was significantly higher than that (70.0%) in night shift. The muscle mass (kg, %) had significantly positive relationship with daily steps in day shift (r = 0.592, r = 0.632) and night shift (r = 0.550, r = 0.503). Triceps skinfold thickness was negatively correlated with daily steps in day shift (r = -0.366, p < 0.05). There were remarkable differences in physical activities and sleeping hours depending on shift works of policemen. In the case of night shift work, sleeping hours was the lowest and activity coefficient was the highest among day shift, night shift and holiday. These results suggest that energy requirements of policemen should be differentiated according to shift work duty.

Assessment of Daily steps, Activity coefficient, Body composition, Resting Energy Expenditure and Daily Energy Expenditure in Female University Students

The purpose of this study was to assess the energy expenditure and investigate the relationship between related variables in 70 female university students. Resting energy expenditure estimated by Harris-Benedict formula, WHO/NAO/FAO formula and various formulas based on body weight and body surface area were 1366.9+/-74.4kcal/day, 1287.8+/-106.6kcal/day, 1171.4+/-155.8kcal/day and 1342.0+/-97.4kcal/day. Measured resting energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry(Model : Metavine and TrueOne2400) were 1582.0+/-150.1kcal/day and 1268.2+/-152.9kcal/day, respectively. Average step number per day was 11981.2+/-3014.4 steps and average step number per hour was 746.1+/-198.0 steps/hr. Daily energy expenditure by using Harris-Benedict formula, body weight formula, body surface area formula, WHO/NAO.FAO formula and 15-min check list formula were 2374.7+/-249.6kcal, 2033.5+/-313.2kcal, 2331.2+/-266.0kcal, 2240.8+/-185.5kcal and 2195.5+/-398.3kcal. Meanwhile energy intake of subjects was 1714.9+/-551.2 kcal. Daily energy expenditure has positive correlation(r=0.262) with daily step number. And there was significant positive correlations(r=0.35-0.68) between various daily energy expenditures and muscle mass. These results suggested that increase of daily step number by using pedometer is good method to increase daily energy expenditure. In particular, increase in step number can reinforce the amounts of muscle.