Table 3.
Analysis of the main results of the studies included in the review.
| References | Main Aim | Main Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Valach et al. [43] | To investigate the differences in the volume and intensity of PA between girls and boys with different levels of academic achievement throughout of a school day | PA during school |
| LPA (<3 METs (min·h−1)): H = 13.74, p < 0.01, η2 = 0.032 between boys and girls with better AA. | ||
| VPA (>6 METs (min·h−1)): H = 26.27, p < 0.01; η2 = 0.061 between boys and girls with worse AA, with both of them in favor of boys. | ||
| PA recess | ||
| VPA (>6 METs (min·h−1): H = 21.58; p < 0.001; η2 = 0.050), where boys with better AA were physically more active than girls were with better AA. | ||
| Frömel et al. [50] | To examine the differences in the intensity of PA during school days and weekends in Polish and Czech boys and girls | Intensity PA during school days (average) |
| <3 METs (hour·min−1) (LPA): Boys (Czech—9.77; Polish—9.48); Girls (Czech—8.68; Polish—8.56). | ||
| 3—5.9 METs (hour·min−1) (MPA): Boys (Czech—1.69; Polish—1.33); Girls (Czech—1.53; Polish—1.41). | ||
| ≥6 METs (hour·min−1) (VPA): Boys (Czech—0.57; Polish—0.35); Girls (Czech—0.31; Polish—0.22). | ||
| Hubáčková et al. [55] | To assess differences in PA among primary (PS) and secondary school (SS) boys and girls in specific segments of a school day | Energy expenditure in physical activity (kcal/kg/hour) |
| PS group: 0.50 (mdn) energy expended by boys and 0.41 by girls. | ||
| SS group: 0.26 (mdn) energy expended by boys and 0.38 by girls. | ||
| Step counts (steps/hour) | ||
| PS group: 763 (average) steps taken by boys and 614 of girls. | ||
| SS group: 484 (average) steps taken by boys and 554 by girls. | ||
| Mitáš et al. [51] | To identify the trends in the achievement of physical activity guidelines by Czech adolescents through objective and subjective PA monitoring | Physical activity (MET-min/week) in girls and boys in 2010–2017 |
| School: Boys (H = 7.18, p = 0.066, η2 = 0.005) and girls (H = 5.49, p = 0.139, η2 = 0.002). | ||
| VPA: Boys (H = 9.99, p = 0.019, η2 = 0.009) and girls (H = 9.38, p = 0.025, η2 = 0.006). | ||
| MPA: Boys (H = 10.71, p = 0.013, η2 = 0.010) and girls (H = 6.080, p = 0.109, η2 = 0.003). | ||
| Byun et al. [45] | To evaluate the feasibility and the effectiveness intervention of an PA monitoring system to promote PA in preschoolers | SED (average) |
| GI: 31.6 min/h. | ||
| GC: 33.6 min/h. | ||
| TPA (average) | ||
| GI: 28.4 min/h. | ||
| GC: 26.4 min/h. | ||
| Saint-Maurice et al. [46] | To describe age, sex and season patterns in children’s physical activity behaviors during discrete time periods, both in school and at home | Recess time: 65.0% (16.5 ± 9.2 min) in MVPA. PE: 31.4% (13.9 ± 11.1 min) in MVPA. |
| Sanders et al. [53] | To compare PA in the physical education lessons and leisure time and compare the effect of varying accelerometer epoch length on estimates of MVPA, vigorous PA (VPA), moderate PA (MPA) and light PA (LPA) | Time spent performing physical activity on average during Physical Education lesson: |
| MVPA—36.0612.3%; VPA—15.265.8%; MPA—20.768.2%; LPA—33.168.8% LPA—30.9614.3%; sedentary time—30.9614.3%. | ||
| Time spend performing physical activity on average during Leisure time: | ||
| MVPA—6.362.0%; VPA—1.461.0%; MPA—4.961.4%; LPA—11.462.8%, sedentary behavior—82.364.1%. | ||
| Scruggs et al. [47] | To determine a pedometer steps per minute pattern and to quantify the time students spent performing MVPA during physical education class | Validation Sample |
| Steps*min−1: Boys and girls (62.04 and 64.42, respectively) and 1st grade (from 6 to 10 years) and 2nd grade students (from 10 to 14 years) (63.13 and 63.14, respectively). | ||
| %MVPA: Boys and girls (34.56 and 35.21, respectively) and 1st grade and 2nd grade students (34.70 and 35.04, respectively). | ||
| %VPA: Boys and girls (16.14 and 16.63, respectively) and 1st grade and 2nd grade students (17.28 and 15.39, respectively). | ||
| Cross-Validation | ||
| Steps*min−1: Boys and girls (63.30 and 64.15, respectively) and 1st grade and 2nd grade students (63.47 and 64.18, respectively). | ||
| %MVPA: Boys and girls (35.22 and 34.70, respectively) and 1st grade and 2nd grade students (34.71 and 35.31, respectively). | ||
| %VPA: Boys and girls (17.67 and 16.42, respectively) and 1st grade and 2nd grade students (17.46 and 16.25, respectively). | ||
| Mooses et al. [58] | To assess the validity of Fitbit Zip step count, MVPA and sedentary minutes | PA monitored by Fitbip Zip and ActiGraph GT3x (average) |
| Steps (Fitbit Zip/ActiGraph GT3x): PE—2354.0 monitored by Fitbit Zip and 2008.7 ActiGraph GT3x; Recess—472.2 monitored by Fitbit Zip; 388.5 ActiGraph GT3x, r = 0.96, p < 0.001. | ||
| MVPA (min) (Fitbit Zip/ActiGraph GT3x): PE—17.8 monitored by Fitbit Zip and 15.4 ActiGraph GT3x; Recess—2.1 monitored by Fitbit Zip; 2.4 ActiGraph GT3x, r = 0.56–0.72, p < 0.001. | ||
| Sedentary time (min) (Fitbit Zip/ActiGraph GT3x): PE—11.1 monitored by Fitbit Zip and 13.7 ActiGraph GT3x; Recess—5.5 monitored by Fitbit Zip; 5.4 ActiGraph GT3x, r = 0.85–0.87, p < 0.001. | ||
| Kerr et al. [57] | To assess how PE contributes to sedentary behavior and the intensity profile of physical activity accumulated on PE days compared to those on non-PE days | Physical activity during the PE lesson |
| On average, girls spent a larger amount of time than boys did engaged in light physical activity (7.64, p < 0.01, d = 1.21). In contrast, boys spent more time performing hard (6.02, p < 0.01, d = −1.04) and very hard (5.12, p < 0.01, d = −0.82) physical activity, respectively, compared with that of girls. | ||
| Janssen et al. [63] | To evaluate the effectiveness of the playground program PLAYgrounds on increasing PA | Counts/min (average) |
| GI: 3924 (> 6 METs in VPA). | ||
| GC: 2178 (3–6 METs in MPA). | ||
| Energy expenditure (kcal/kg/min) (average) | ||
| GI: 0.105 (6 METs in MPA). | ||
| GC: 0.074 (4 METs in LPA). | ||
| MVPA (%) | ||
| GI: 77.3. | ||
| GC: 38.7. | ||
| Saint-Maurice et al. [48] | To evaluate the utility of a multi-method approach (accelerometers plus direct observation) to better understand youth PA during recess | MVPA |
| Boys (40.9) vs. girls (31.1): (F (1.184) = 32.22, p < 0.001). | ||
| School 2 (43.5) vs. School 1 (29.2): (F (1.184) = 63.59, p < 0.001. | ||
| School 2: Boys vs. girls (Meandiff = 17.9, p < 0.001). | ||
| School 1: Girls vs. boys (Meandiff = 4.1, p < 0.001). | ||
| Hartwig et al. [54] | To develop and validate a system capable of providing feedback on PE lesson MVPA | Physical activity PE lessons |
| Training Sample (average): Steps (2950), Steps*min−1 (43.5) and %MVPA (23.8). | ||
| Validation Sample (average): Steps (3025), Steps*min−1 (44.9) and %MVPA (24.2). | ||
| Convergent Sample (average): Steps (2136), Steps*min−1 (45.4) and %MVPA (24.2). | ||
| Sigmund et al. [52] | To identify the changes in children’s PA upon entry to first year at school and to identify the days of the school week when the students exhibit low PA values | PA in general |
| AEE: 268.08, p < 0.0001, d = 1.5646. | ||
| STEPS: 241.12, p < 0.0001, d = 1.3231. | ||
| PA of boys and girls | ||
| AEE (kcal/kg/day): boys (3.15, p < 0.0001, d = 1.7803); girls | ||
| (2.75, p < 0.0001, d = 1.3501). | ||
| STEPS (average/day): boys (2824.5, p < 0.0001, d = 1.5149); girls (2318, p < 0.0001, d = 1.2217). | ||
| Gao et al. [49] | To evaluate of the percentages of students who are overweight and obese based on the BMI and students’ physical activity level in physical education as measured by accelerometers | Percentage of time spent performing physical activity (average) |
| Percent time spent sedentary (accelerometer; %): OW/obese (13.54) vs. Normal weight (7.64), (F (1, 146) = 10.04, p = 0.002, η2 = 0.06). | ||
| Percent time performing MVPA (accelerometer; %): Normal weight (68.17) vs. OW/obese (61.14), (F (1146) = 4.89, p = 0.029, η2 = 0.03). | ||
| Mota et al. [59] | To observe participation in MVPA during school recess periods and to determine the relative importance of physical activity during recesses to overall daily physical activity | Daily accelerometer (counts × min−1): average 542 for boys and 479 for girls. |
| Recess time accelerometer (counts × min−1): average 914 for boys and 1154 for girls. | ||
| MVPA (min × min−1): averages of 142 for boys and 137 for girls. | ||
| Recess time MVPA (min): averages of 9.2 for boys and 11.4 for girls. | ||
| Fairclough et al. [56] | Assess the day-to-day variability of children’s weekday physical activity for the whole day and when it has been segmented into discrete periods of the day | PA to boys and girls |
| MVPA (min): Boys (32.8) and Girls (25.4). | ||
| Intra-class correlation coefficient (95% confidence intervals) of 1 day: Boys (0.367) and Girls (0.438). | ||
| Intra-class correlation coefficient (95% confidence intervals) of 4 days: Boys (0.698) and Girls (0.757). | ||
| Nilsen et al. [60] | Distribution of PA and SED, in particular MVPA, during preschool hours vs. time out of school | PA of boys and girls (Average) |
| TPA (cpm): Boys (867) and girls (776). | ||
| SED (min/day): Boys (172) and girls (186). | ||
| LPA (min/day): Boys (186) and girls (181). | ||
| MVPA (min/day): Boys (47) and girls (39). | ||
| Rush et al. [61] | Identify, in the context of the school day, whether a pedometer is a more effective tool, compared to an accelerometer in identifing children with low physical activity levels | Total Steps (300 min of an average school day) |
| Total accelerometer counts (cpm): Boys—8103; Girls—6963. | ||
| Sedentary, min/day <100 cpm: Boys—143.38; Girls—138.9. | ||
| Light, min/day ≥100 < 1500 cpm: Boys—89.16; Girls—94.75. | ||
| Moderate, min/day ≥1500 < 6500 cpm: Boys—64.78; Girls—63.39. | ||
| Vigorous, min/day ≥6500 cpm: Boys—3.68; Girls—3.95. | ||
| Blaes et al. [42] | Investigate changes in time spent performing light (LPA), moderate (MPA), vigorous (VPA) and very high physical activity (VHPA) from childhood to adolescence | School level |
| LPA (PS vs. JHS): +p < 0.05 (124 min per day). | ||
| MPA (Ps vs. PS): +p < 0.05 (115 min per day) and MPA (PS vs. JHS): −p < 0.05 (233 min per day). | ||
| VPA and VHPA (PS vs. Ps): +p < 0.05 (26 min per day and 25 min per day, respectively) and VPA and VHPA (PS vs. JHS): +p < 0.05 (26 min per day and 24 min per day, respectively). | ||
| MVHPA (PS vs. JHS): −p < 0.05 (223 min per day). | ||
| Raustorp et al. [62] | To advance our knowledge of the contribution of a typical physical education (PE) class to children’s daily physical activity | PE class |
| MVPA: 50.4% (52.5% boys and 48.3% girls). | ||
| Total average step: 74 steps/min. |
PA: Physical Activity; LPA: Light Physical Activity; VPA: Vigorous Physical Activity; AA: Academic Achievement; PS: Primary School; SS: Secondary School; MVPA: Moderate–vigorous Physical Activity; SED: Sedentary Time; GI: Group Intervention; GC: Group Control; PE: Physical Education; TPA: Total Physical Activity; VHPA: Very Light Physical Activity; MVHPA: Moderate-to-vigorous Physical Activity; JHS: Junior High Schools; Ps: Preschoolers; AEE: Activity Energy Expenditure; STEPS: Steps4. Discussion.