Differences in daily step counts among primary, secondary, and junior college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the physical activity patterns measured through pedometers among primary, secondary, and college students. A sample of 571 school children wore pedometers for 5 consecutive weekdays and one weekend day. Results showed that male students were more active than female students across all categories, except during co-curricular activity (CCAs). Primary school students were more active than secondary school and college students. Taken together, the findings of this study support the idea that, as children get older, the differences between boys and girls reduce drastically until the college level, at which point boys are equally as inactive as girls.