Differences between objective and subjective measurements ofphysical activity with regards to gender and age in obese children

Background: Overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide and more and more peopleare dying due to their overweight rather than of starvation. Obesity in young children isbecoming more common and the physical activity is decreasing with age. To measurechildren’s daily physical activity sveral methods can be used, such as Actical activity monitorand activity diary.Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate if there is a difference between the twomethods mentioned above, current physical activity, age and gender in obese children and toinvestigate how many of these children that reached the recommendations of daily activity.Materials and Methods: All included were subjected to the two activity methods,collection of data from anthropometric measurements and body composition measurements.In total 122 children between the ages 10 to 17 years, 38 girls and 67 boys where included inthis study.Results: None of the children reached the recommended daily activity. Correlations betweenobjective and subjective methods showed a stronger association with the activity monitor thanwith the activity diary. The study showed that girls had a higher fat mass (FM) than boys,while boys had higher fat free mass (FFM).Conclusion: This study showed that physical activity decline with age and boys had higherdaily physical activity. Boys had more tendencies to improve their fat free mass. Girls hadhigher fat mass and lower fat free mass. Which method that gives the most adequate resultsrequires a larger population and more studies of the topic