Abstract
Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behaviors are prominent components of obesity prevention and treatment for children and are among the key recommendations issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Sports Medicine, and the American College of Clinical Endocrinology. Despite these recommendations, there are few studies examining the impact of physical activity in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. Moreover, even among studies that show short-term effectiveness of exercise regimens, long-term adherence has been limited especially when intervention are not home-based and well integrated into the child's lifestyle.
The overall goal of this study is to test the feasibility of using direct measurement of activity and inactivity using accelerometers combined with self-reported detailed descriptions of activities in a group of 10-12 year old obese, overweight, and non-overweight children enrolled in a community health clinic. This project will generate critical data needed to develop comprehensive daily activity profiles of children. These profiles can potentially be shared with families to encourage self-management in regulating daily activity patterns. These results will not only be sufficiently important to merit publication, but also serve as the foundation for future studies that can develop and evaluate interventions targeting physical activity. The results of this investigation will provide important preliminary data for a larger grant application in the future.
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Principal Investigator
Karen Dorsey
Co-Investigator
Harlan Krumholz
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