Physical activity patterns in children and adolescents: a brief summary of current knowledge

Abstract

The main purpose of this review was to accost conceptual and operational issues associated with physical activity patterns (PAF) in children and adolescents. A systematic research was done in national and international data bases in order to select recent studies with information concerning PAF. There are different ways to describe and quantify PAF using univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Most of studies identified that physical activity is characterized by extremely short periods of high intensity, with a predominance of moderate to low intensity activity.On weekends these periods are longer and boys have higher frequencies of episodes in different levels of intensity. “Physical activity pattern” is a usual expression, but there is no unanimous concept and interpretation. Using a multimode approach would certainly improve our understanding of PAF, considering its type, frequency, duration, and intensity.