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Hillary L. Burdette, MD, MS; Robert C. Whitaker, MD, MPH; Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:353-357.

Background  Keeping young children physically active is an important strategy to promote their health and well-being. To our knowledge, survey measures of physical activity in preschool-aged children are unavailable. Time spent playing outdoors is a potential surrogate measure of physical activity in preschoolers, but parental-report measures of outdoor playtime have not been evaluated.

Objective  To compare a direct measure of physical activity in preschool-aged children with 2 parental-report measures of children's outdoor playtime.

Main Outcome Measures  Three days of recording with a 3-dimensional accelerometer were used to directly measure physical activity in 250 preschool-aged children. We calculated each child's average vector magnitude per minute while awake. Parental report of outdoor playtime was measured in 2 ways: (1) the score from a checklist used to record outdoor playtime over 3 days and (2) a recall of the usual minutes of daily outdoor playtime during the prior month. We calculated Spearman rank correlation coefficients among these 3 measures.

Results  The mean age of the children was 44 months, 87.7% were white, and 12.3% were black. Parents reported that their children spent a mean (±SD) of 146 (±113) minutes playing outdoors each day. Physical activity as measured by the accelerometer was significantly correlated to the time spent playing outdoors, as measured by the checklist (r = 0.33, P <.001) and recall (r = 0.20, P = .003).

Conclusion  Parental-report measures of outdoor playtime were significantly correlated to a direct measure of physical activity in preschool-aged children, and are worthy of future evaluation as a survey measure.

From the Divisions of General and Community Pediatrics (Drs Burdette and Whitaker) and Cardiology (Dr Daniels), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (Drs Whitaker and Daniels), Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr Burdette is now with the Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.

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