A Youth Compendium of Physical Activities: Activity Codes and Metabolic Intensities

Nancy Butte, Kathleen Watson, Kate Ridley, Issa Zakeri, Robert McMurray, Karin Pfeiffer, Scott Crouter, Stephen Herrmann, David Bassett, Alexander Long, Zekarias Berhane, Stewart Trost, Barbara Ainsworth, David Berrigan, Janet Fulton

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    181 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Purpose: A Youth Compendium of Physical Activities (Youth Compendium) was developed to estimate the energy costs of physical activities using data on youth only. Methods: On the basis of a literature search and pooled data of energy expenditure measurements in youth, the energy costs of 196 activities were compiled in 16 activity categories to form a Youth Compendium of Physical Activities. To estimate the intensity of each activity, measured oxygen consumption (V O2) was divided by basal metabolic rate (Schofield age-, sex-, and mass-specific equations) to produce a youth MET (METy). A mixed linear model was developed for each activity category to impute missing values for age ranges with no observations for a specific activity. Results: This Youth Compendium consists of METy values for 196 specific activities classified into 16 major categories for four age-groups, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 yr. METy values in this Youth Compendium were measured (51%) or imputed (49%) from youth data. Conclusion: This Youth Compendium of Physical Activities uses pediatric data exclusively, addresses the age dependency of METy, and imputes missing METy values and thus represents advancement in physical activity research and practice. This Youth Compendium will be a valuable resource for stakeholders interested in evaluating interventions, programs, and policies designed to assess and encourage physical activity in youth.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)246-256
    Number of pages11
    JournalMedicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
    Volume50
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018

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