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Identifying Beneficial Physical Activity During School Recess: Utility and Feasibility of the Fitbit

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Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to assess the utility, feasibility, and reliability of Fitbit accelerometers to measure physical activity (via steps) of 15 young children simultaneously during recess. Fitbit-recorded steps per minute (SPM) were used as the primary measure to assess levels of activity in children playing in various structured (i.e., instructed) and unstructured (i.e., free play) recess activities. The results suggested that the number of steps measured by two Fitbits resulted in high levels of agreement, and the Fitbits were successful at identifying differential levels of activity across multiple types of play activities. Across all children, running or walking was associated with the most SPM (M = 89) and highest percentage of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA; M = 47%), followed by soccer (M = 58 SPM; M = 12% MVPA), free play (M = 53 SPM; 3% MVPA), and tag (M = 43 SPM; 7% MVPA). The utility of the Fitbit’s minute-by-minute data records was demonstrated, with the use of additional third-party software by Python, as differential levels of physical activity associated with various play behaviors were detected, and all 15 participants were assessed simultaneously with very few observers.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Andrew Beirise, Sarah Burnett, Sara Lloyd, Jenna Price, and Preston Stakias for their assistance in data collection and analysis, and Gage Bowdon for his assistance with data extraction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    Carole M. Van Camp & Lynda B. Hayes

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  1. Carole M. Van Camp
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  2. Lynda B. Hayes
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Correspondence to Carole M. Van Camp.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Van Camp, C.M., Hayes, L.B. Identifying Beneficial Physical Activity During School Recess: Utility and Feasibility of the Fitbit. J Behav Educ 26, 394–409 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-017-9276-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-017-9276-5

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