Authors:
Muhammad Asad Ullah Khan
;
Francesca Gallè
;
Giada Ballarin
;
Patrizia Calella
;
Giuseppe Cerullo
;
Giorgio Liguori
and
Giuliana Valerio
Affiliation:
Department of Movement Sciences and Wellbeing, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Via Medina 40, Naples, Italy
Keyword(s):
Accelerometers, Body Region Movement, Classroom Activity, Prolonged Sitting, Leg Fidgeting.
Abstract:
Sitting behavior research rarely consider non-ambulatory movement in separate body regions. This study used accelerometers, a sedentary cut off criterion, and measurement variables to evaluate movement accumulation in trunk, waist, and foot regions of students in a 42-minute classroom session. Findings show that all three sites were unique in stationary and movement measures (P≤0.012). Trunk and waist spent almost entire lesson pe-riod in stationary state (>98%) whereas foot spent larger proportion in movement (9%). In addition, longest stationary period in trunk and waist regions exceeded the 30-minute threshold of prolonged sitting by a margin of 1 to 2 minutes as opposed to the foot. Altogether, trunk and waist recorded negligible seated activity and foot recorded sporadic and frequent movement. Based on health connection of body regions movement while sitting, we believe that some movement may be better than no movement at all. Since trunk and wait were inac-tive during the lesso
n period, strategies could be established to encourage intermittent movement in static body regions and facilitation of movement in already active regions. However, further investigation is needed to bet-ter understand dependencies of localized body activity on students’ wellbeing in prolonged sessions of class-room lessons.
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