schools out what are urban children doing the summer activity study of somerville youth (sassy)学校的城市孩子夏天干什么活动研究萨默维尔市青年(的).pdfVIP

Tovar et al. BMC Pediatrics 2010, 10:16 /1471-2431/10/16 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access School’s out: what are urban children doing? The Summer Activity Study of Somerville Youth (SASSY) 1* 1 1 1 1 1,2 Alison Tovar , Keith Lividini , Christina D Economos , Sara Folta , Jeanne Goldberg , Aviva Must Abstract Background: Research indicates that in the United States, children experience healthier BMI and fitness levels during school vs. summer, but research is limited. The primary goal of this pilot study was to assess where children spend their time during the months that school is not in session and to learn about the different types of activities they engage in within different care settings. A secondary goal of this pilot study was to learn what children eat during the summer months. Methods: A nine-week summer study of 57 parents of second and third grade students was conducted in an economically, racial/ethnically and linguistically diverse US urban city. Weekly telephone interviews queried time and activities spent on/in 1) the main caregiver’s care 2) someone else’s care 3) vacation 4) and camp. Activities were categorised as sedentary, light, moderate, or vigorous (0-3 scale). For each child, a mean activity level was calculated and weighted for proportion of time spent in each care situation, yielding a weighted activity index. On the last phone call, parents answered questions about their child’s diet over the summer. Two post-study focus groups were conducted to help interpret findings from the weekly activity interviews. Results: The mean activity index was 1.05 ± 0.32 and differed between gender (p = 0.07), education (p = 0.08) and primary language spoken in the household (p = 0.01). Children