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HomeNewsUniversity of Lethbridge leads study to compare youth physical activity in 14...

University of Lethbridge leads study to compare youth physical activity in 14 countries

A study led by the University of Lethbridge will compare physical activity levels among children across the globe. Dr. Richard Larouche, an associate professor in the University of Lethbridge public health program, in collaboration with Dr. Mark S. Tremblay, a senior scientist at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa, will lead a group of 25 co-investigators as they seek to compare physical activity levels between 14 countries on six continents.

The team will use more than $1.5 million in funding over three years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to create an app-based questionnaire. The comparison could help identify which countries are successful in promoting activity and can help others develop plans to increase activity, according to the University of Lethbridge.

“We lack a comparable instrument to measure physical activity across countries,” Larouche said. “When we’re comparing different studies, some of the differences we see between countries may actually be differences in measurement, rather than genuine differences in physical activity behaviours.”

The team will aim to determine the accuracy of its app in measuring physical activity among five to 17 year olds in low, middle and high income countries. 

“Most of the questionnaires we have are developed in high-income countries like Canada, the United States and European countries,” Larouche said. “They tend to do a fairly decent job at capturing things like sport participation but to capture the more lifestyle-associated activities, they don’t do such a good job.”

A pilot study with about 30 children and one of their parents in each country will be conducted before the main study follows with 500 children and their parents in each of the countries.

“It’s definitely the biggest study that I’ve led, so it’s exciting,” Larouche said. He estimates up to 100 post-secondary students and research staff will gain valuable experience collecting the data. “If we get the participation we want, which would be about 7,000 kids total, all levels of country income, based on the World Bank classification, and from urban and rural locations, we will have excellent data to work with that’s directly comparable.”

By understanding the difference in activity levels in each country, the research aims to help generate ideas for promoting physical activity. It can also help inform policy and intervention for researchers and practitioners and will lay groundwork for future studies. 

“We expect our new questionnaire will facilitate the measurement of physical activity globally,” Larouche said. “Our sample has the potential to be the largest and most diverse ever collected to assess the accuracy of such a questionnaire.”

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