Seasonal variation in the distribution of daily stepping in 11-13 year old school children

Seasonality studies in adolescent’s physical activity(PA) tend to report total PA (e.g. steps/day) rather than more specific detail such as steps/hour. This study compared the detailed changes in PA between seasons. Thirty three adolescents (baseline age 12.2 ± 0.3y) wore the activPAL activity monitor for 8 days on two occasions. Steps/day were higher in summer (Mdn = 12,879) than winter (Mdn = 0,512), p.05), however, boys had significantly higher step counts in summer between ’13:00-14:00’ (p=.023), ’19:00-20:00’ (p=.032)and ‘20:00-21:00’ (p=.023). Total steps/day masked sex differences within specific hours of the day, particularly evening times. Detailed daily patterns of PA are required to fully understand differences between sexes and across seasons