Sedentary behaviour of pupils aged 9-10 years attending year 5 in Gozo primary schools

Abstract

The aim of the study was to measure the sedentary behaviour among pupils attending Year 5 (aged 9 - 10 years) in Gozo primary schools and to find the sex and school differences in sedentary activities of the students. The study also sought to establish the prevalence of overweight and obesity in this sample. The Adolescent Sedentary Activities Questionnaire - ASAQ (Hardy, Bass & Booth, 2007) was adapted for use as the research tool to measure the sedentary activities of students. The questionnaire was anonymous and consisted of twelve simple questions about the things children do sitting or lying down throughout the week. All the 357 students attending Year 5 were invited to take part and 247 (69.2 per cent) accepted. An alpha level of 0.05 was set for statistical significance. Sex and school differences were done by running t-tests analysis. Gozitan pupils aged 9 - 10 years attending Year 5 spent an average of 92 minutes (1.5 hrs) watching T.V., DVDs/videos, or using the computer for fun during the weekdays. During the weekends the time spent in watching T.V., videos/DVDs or using the computer for fun doubled to 193 minutes (3.2 hrs) which was well above the international guidelines (American Academy of Paediatrics, 2001) of 120 minutes (2 hrs) or less per day. Doing homework was the main sedentary activity performed during weekdays (62.5 minutes per day). T.V watching was the main sedentary activity performed during weekends (93 minutes per day). There were significant sex differences between the type and amount of sedentary activities both on weekdays and on weekends. The only school difference in sedentary activity of all students was that of doing crafts/hobbies on weekends (p=0.004) when students attending church schools spent on average 40 minutes more doing this activity. There was a significant difference between the BMI (p=0.003), the BMI of girls was slightly lower than that of boys. Twenty two 22 per cent of the boys and 15.9 per cent of the girls were overweight. While, 29 per cent of the boys and 11.7 per cent of the girls were obese.