Heart rate monitoring of physical activity in children and adolescents: the Muscatine Study.

To assess the usefulness of whole-day heart rate monitoring as a quantitative measure of physical activity in children, the activity of 76 children and adolescents (ages 6 to 17 years), randomly selected from a school population, was measured during a typical summer day using a light-weight, nonrestrictive heart rate telemetry unit. A 12-hour recall and a simple self-rating of usual activity questionnaire were also administered on the same day. An additional 12-hour recall questionnaire was administered on another day. Within 1 month of the heart rate monitoring, the skinfold measures, peak aerobic capacity, and sexual maturation were assessed. Data analysis indicated that activity as measured by telemetry was related to questionnaire recall on the monitored day (r = .50), nonmonitored day (r = .32), and self-rating (r = .35); level of activity as measured by telemetry was related to peak aerobic capacity in girls (r = .36) but not in boys (r = -.06); body fat was related inversely to activity (r = -.32); and prepubescent children were more active than post- and pubescent children (P less than .003). No difference was found in activity level between boys and girls (P greater than .05). This study suggests that for children whole-day heart rate monitoring is an objective, nonobtrusive method for measuring physical activity; and maturation, but not gender, is an influential mediating factor for activity.