Research Article
Underserved Minority Children Are Not Meeting the US Public Health Recommendation for Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity
| William W. Wong1*, Christina L. Ortiz2, Debra Lathan2, Louis A. Moore2, Karen L. Konzelmann1, Anne L. Adolph1, O’Brian Smith1and Nancy F. Butte1 | |
| 1USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, USA | |
| 2City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Texas, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Dr. William W. Wong Ph.D, USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center 1100 Bates Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA Tel: 713-798-7168 Fax: 713-798-7194 E-mail: wwong@bcm.edu |
| Received November 08, 2012; Accepted December 17, 2012; Published December 19, 2012 | |
| Citation: Wong WW, Ortiz CL, Lathan D, Moore LA, Konzelmann KL, et al. (2012) Underserved Minority Children Are Not Meeting the US Public Health Recommendation for Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity. J Obes Wt Loss Ther 2:132. doi:10.4172/2165-7904.1000132 | |
| Copyright: © 2012 Wong WW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Background: In the US childhood obesity is more prevalent among underserved minority children. It is recommended that children should spend a minimum of 60 min/d in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in order to maintain a healthy body weight. Methods: We measured the amount of MVPA based on a minimum of 5 consecutive days of Actical measurements in 483 underserved minority children (10.3 ± 1.0 y (range 9-12 y); 51.1% male; 31.1% Black/68.9% Hispanic; 66% overweight or obese) who took part in our community childhood obesity intervention program (Healthy Kids-Houston). The majority of children (93.2%) were from low-income families. Results: The minority children spent only 45 minutes per day on MVPA and only 23% were meeting the MVPA recommendation. Time spent on MVPA decreased with age (-6.8 ± 1.1 min/d (mean ± SE), P<0.01) with boys spending more time (+12.5 ± 1.1min/d, P<0.001) in MVPA than girls. Obese children spent significantly less time (32.1 ± 1.1 min/d) on MVPA than normal weight children (42.2 ± 1.1 min/d, P<0.001) and overweight children (39.7 ± 1.1 min/d, P<0.01). The amount of time spent on MVPA was not significantly different between normal-weight and overweight children (P=0.43). Race (P=0.12) and SES (P=0.39) had no effect on MVPA. Children spent more time on MVPA (+14.5 ± 1.0 min/d, P<0.001) during weekdays than weekend days. Conclusions: Underserved minority children living in a large metropolitan city are not meeting the MVPA recommendation regardless of weight status. To combat childhood obesity, public and private resources should be utilized and the environment improved to promote MVPA in underserved minority communities.
